Breaking Point
by The Wax Factory
Summary: After a strange cloud spreads an infection through rain water, a small group of refugees go on a cross-country journey that causes them to question everything they ever believed in - until they reach their breaking point that is. In-progress.
1. Shifty

**Author's Note**: Considering how everyone always skips these, I'm going to make it brief. This story was originally posted awhile ago. However, partly due to lack of inspiration, I scrapped it and planned to write it when I finally knew where it was going. After planning the entire story out in advance, I know for a fact that it's going to be finished now.

This story is going to be very, very bloody. Considering how its Happy Tree Friends based that isn't much of a surprise, but it's going to be a very high T here.

Side Note: Oh, and no gender debates. It's been settled for ages. Flaky is a girl.

* * *

**BREAKING POINT**

_"The human mind is like a TV set. When it goes blank, it's a good idea to turn off the sound"_

**-Anonymous**

* * *

**Shifty**

* * *

The streets between the gloomy-looking apartments of downtown Happy Tree flooded with leftover rain water. Streams guzzled down from gutters, drifting off here and there and becoming whirlpools that dried up and dispensed down into sewer grates. Cars passed by and sloshed their tires against the rain rising up against the curb. The flood was over now, but with the way things were looking, it seemed like the worst of the mess was still to come. It normally didn't get this bad uptown, but then again, this was the other side. Downtown. The dumps.

Shifty sat on the stoop of his apartment and watched the rainwater sputter and leak out of the rusty gutter beside the steps. It drizzled down like a stream, drizzling even further on until it was spit off somewhere to an unknown fate. He lay back casually, nibbling on the increasingly stale chocolate bar that he had stolen moments ago from the convenience store several blocks away. The heist hadn't been pulled off alone in reality. In his mind maybe, but not in reality.

There was a screeching whir of bicycle tires spinning into puddles. Practically flying out of the rainy fog, Lifty came riding out on his bike with a grocery bag swung around the handlebars. He was breathing hard, his face contorted in a mess of sweat, but there was still a smile on his face. The bag of stolen merchandise blew in the wind.

His tires squeaking against the wet street, Lifty parked the bicycle beside the stoop and climbed off, grabbing the bag of groceries and holding it loosely in one hand. He walked up to his brother with that goofy smile vanishing and a look of indifference replacing it. Shifty smiled now, flashing his signature big, sly smile at his twin brother.

"You didn't leave anything behind, right?" Shifty asked. He always had a way of making things sound like an order.

Lifty shook his head. "I just snuck in, grabbed a grocery bag, and put everything in. The moose at the register didn't even see me".

"Good".

Finishing off his stolen chocolate bar and crumbling up the wrapper in his wet palms, Shifty didn't break his sly smile as he picked himself up from the ground and tore into the grocery bag.

Life had taught Shifty at an early age that if you weren't sure of yourself, you would be chewed up, spit out, and be left alone. It only took one look at the streets of downtown Happy Tree to know that it was a cold, cold world. Maybe not to everyone, but as they said, life was kind to some and cruel to others. That was why you had to stand out. Whenever he walked in a room, he made sure that his smile looked intimidating. Besides his hat - which he had never replaced since the day he got it - his big and arrogant smile was the one thing Shifty liked about how he looked.

As Shifty tore into the bag, pulling out a bag of packaged crackers that would be their makeshift dinner for the evening, Lifty's look of indifference vanished and he started glaring. More than anything, he looked annoyed. By the time Shifty looked up and noticed, he had looked through nearly everything in the whole bag.

"What?" Shifty snapped.

"You didn't have to wait for me here to make sure nothing happened. In case you didn't realize it, I can take care of myself. We do this every day, and so far, nothing's happened. What the hell are you expecting?"

"I wasn't waiting on the stoop for you, you damn brat", Shifty lied. "Just help me bring everything inside".

For a second, Shifty thought that Lifty was about to argue. That happened a lot, and it tended to frighten him sometimes. Shifty thrived on having the upper hand in things, and when he was taken out of that familiar territory, he didn't know what could happen. The times when his brother stood up to him were rare, but they were unpredictable. Not wanting to start an argument, he didn't say anything. He just sighed, bent down and heaved the grocery bag over his shoulder.. Every day, when the two raccoons stole what they needed for dinner from random grocery stores, they would take shifts for who would have to sneak the food out. Today, it had been Lifty's turn.

And every time it was Lifty's turn, Shifty worried.

Although he bossed his brother, his lackey, around, there was always the fear in the back of his mind of something "happening". Although Shifty wasn't exactly sure what could happen, or even if it actually would, but he knew it would be bad. And although he would never admit it, he didn't want anything to happen to neither him or his brother. It was a pathetic thought to admit, but they were really all they had. _The world's cold, ain't it? Spring weather. Another storm's probably coming in soon.._

Carrying the groceries through the archway and starting up the rain-soaked stairwell, Shifty could already hear their parents fighting from the bottom floor of their apartment building. They lived in the third-story penthouse, but his parents screamed so loud at sometimes that you could hear it from down the street. Their arguments usually shifted back and forth between different topics: paying for the apartment, the bills, the bills, Lifty and Shifty, the bills….

Shuffling the groceries in his hands, Shifty began to walk up the creaky steps of the apartment building with his brother closely behind. The steps were girded-metal and completely soaked in rain. Climbing the thing really was a daily safety hazard when the weather got bad.

"I can do things for myself", Lifty said suddenly. It came out of nowhere. "I'm not an idiot. And you don't have to boss me around and treat me like one".

"Didn't I already say that I wasn't waiting for you? Shut up and don't talk to me".

"Well in case you didn't realize it bro, I'm a person too and I think I'm pretty capable of taking care of myself. Maybe even more than you, but you'd never know that since you've never even given me a chance…"

Shifty tightened his fedora around his ears, struggling to block out Lifty's annoying voice that - although he would deny it - sounded exactly like his. With that aside, Lifty and Shifty were practically identical twins. The only physical difference between them was Shifty's hat, which acted mainly as a way to tell the two raccoon brothers apart.

Finally reaching the door to their apartment, Shifty reached into the lining of his hat and pulled out an old key with golden and chipped paint. At his feet, a stray rat scurried across the exposed plumbing coming out of the wall. It squeaked for a second before scurrying down the stairwell and out of sight. The building was old, it was at the verge of falling apart, but most of all, it was their home. Somehow or another, they'd actually grown up there and thrived in it. When you really considered it, it was a scary thought.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU LAST NIGHT, YOU STUPID BITCH?"

"I WAS OUT WORKING AT THE STORE! I TOLD YOU! I'M TELLING THE TRUTH"

The moment the door creaked open, the thick smack of his father's palm followed by his mother's shrill scream echoed through the four-room apartment. The door immeadidly opened up into their foul-smelling kitchen. A mess of a room with greasy floorboards, rotten food and counters that hadn't been washed in years, it really was hard to figure out how the two of them had managed to live there for fifteen years and counting. Sometimes Shifty wondered if he was ever actually going to leave.

Their parents were there. Their mother was slumped against the yellowed wall in the corner, dazed and confused with a bruise under her left eye. The beefy figure of their father was standing in the middle of the room. Balding and overweight with the inability to do much of anything, it was a growing idea to the twins that he might have had some kind of mental problem. Maybe some kind of anger management or something. The moment the two brothers entered, his drunken eyes turned away from his wife and locked on them.

"Where have you two been?" he barked.

Smiling his cocky and arrogant smile, needing it more than ever, Shifty didn't answer. Instead, he closed the door with his foot and dropped the groceries on the ancient coffee table beside the door. Lifty, meanwhile, said nothing as he stared at the ground and tried to hide in the background. This was a routine that happened all most every day.

Their father's eyes narrowed. "I said, where the hell you have been!"

"Wow, Dad, that's a first", Shifty said with his signature smile. "I mean, wow, I don't think you've ever asked us that before! Really thinking about your kids today, aren't you?""

His father glared and his fist clenched, turning his green fur to the seething white color of a ripe onion. Rain continued to drizzle on the dirty windowpanes beside them. Their mom was still slumped in the corner, lost in space and completely unaware of the situation that was unfolding in her kitchen.

"I'm asking you a question, Lifty", their father barked. "And I for one think you better ans-

"I'm Shifty".

He stressed his name, trying his best to get his father mad. That was when he noticed that his mother wasn't even conscious. Her eyes were half-open, and she seemed almost in a concussion from the rough slap she had been given. Even if she wouldn't have been much help awake, it really cemented the fact for him. They were alone with their father.

Lifty, who had been staring blankly at the ground, finally glanced up. "I'm the one you're talking about, Dad. I'm Lifty".

Their father's eyes were even more unfocused now and he was wobbling in place. Obviously, he had been drinking again, and obviously, the fight he had just had with their mother hadn't put him in any better of a mood. He was mad. And if things kept going the way they were, someone else was going to end up getting hurt.

"You two should be learning in school".

"School ended four hours ago", Shifty said. "But you were probably too busy drinking to keep track of time. And then there's the fact that we cut school today, but I think that's beside the point, don't you?"

"Well, what the hell is this all about, then? You two should have been home for dinner hours ago!" He wobbled in place again, almost like a maniacal bobble head. He came abruptly to life when his unfocused eyes locked on the groceries lying on the coffee table. Then they widened

"You two don't have any money", he shouted. "You stole that, didn't you? Pullin' off another one of them heists of yours, aren't ya? Thinkin' you can just take whatever ya' want, dontcha?"

"Yeah", Shifty said calmly. "I think I can".

Lifty, on the other hand, was far from calm. His face lit up in rage. "What's the problem, Dad? If we don't feed ourselves, we'll probably starve. It's not like there's anybody bringing home money to have a dinner on the table, anyway. How's welfare treating you?"

In an instant, Shifty's cocky and resourceful smile faded. Complete panic was what replaced it. While he had simply been pushing buttons with his father, knowing the limits, Lifty had gone far beyond what was suitable in their household. He had completely set their father off. He'd gone into uncharted territory – that just wasn't something that you talked about. And now, just like he'd predicted, something was going to happen. _Something always happens…_

"Lif-" Shifty started.

His father's face lit up in fury. "You little-

He reached for the letter opener on the grimy kitchen counter, grabbing it in his large and sweaty paws. In a matter of seconds, he charged forward at Lifty, grabbing him thickly and rendering him in a quick and efficient chokehold. Lifty's feet thrashed and his tail wagged, struggling to break free but not doing a very good job. His face started changing colors - and even with all of this happening, the leftover roof rain continued to clatter and pour down the window's glass. The world wasn't changing at all.

"THAT'S IT, HUH?" their father roared. "IS THAT WHAT I'M DOING? RAISIN' TWO LITTLE SMARTASSES LIKE YOU? YOU SHOULD BE IN SCHOOL! GET OFF TO SCHOOL! THAT'S WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING!"

Knowing something would, "happen", like he had always feared, Shifty ran forward and tore furiously at his father's arm, his cocky smile completely gone now. It just wasn't fair. A big guy like that couldn't gain up on a little guy. Why didn't he just pick on someone his own size? He pulled hard on his father's arm, and although he was in decent shape, he was no match for someone nearly twice his body weight.. Raising the letter opener into the air, his father slit the opener like an intense paper cut across Lifty's face.

"ERGHHHH!"

The blood appeared in an instant, breaking open from the slit in his cheek that had come like an extra mouth. Lifty's green fur ran red as he howled and struggled to break out of the chokehold. His eyes were wet and filled with tears. Nobody was helping him.

And that was when Shifty lost it.

Screaming in rage, he clawed at his father's beefy arm, determined to make a cut ten times deeper than what he had done to his brother. The skin was almost like the bark of a tree though; for a raccoon, it was amazingly rough and hard. It was like trying to stab through a rock. It was clear what he had to do. At that moment, Shifty resorted to his most primal instincts and clamped his teeth down hard on his father's arm, biting down as hard as he could

"MY ARRRMMM! MY ARRRMMM!"

Lifty fell to the ground the moment Shifty tasted the wet and warm blood in his mouth. He tried to stay on for a second, clamped onto his dad's arm as hard as he could, but then he was thrown off like a ragdoll and nearly lost a tooth in the process. His hat fluttered off and landed on the ground. Without it, he looked exactly like Lifty, and it made the abuse even worse. When they looked the same, it just felt like one couldn't fight back anymore than the other could.

"YOU DAMN KIDS!"

Not wasting a second, Shifty grasped his hat on the floor, tightened it on his head in practiced ease, and went running down the hallway to their room with Lifty close behind him. Their father tore after them for a second, but he was overweight and slow. It was like trying to outrun a sloth. They reached the room in a second, rushing in and nearly heaving themselves to the floor. Shifty slammed the door, nearly severing off his brother's tail in the process.

For several seconds, there was only a deafening silence besides their father swearing his lungs out in the hallway as Lifty quickly locked the door with its needle-point hinge. Somebody started slamming on the door for a second. And then again. Finally, after that, there was only grim silence besides the rain pattering away on their bedroom window. Neither of them spoke.

With a soft whimpering sound, the two brothers both fell down against the door in defeat.

"Thanks", Lifty muttered.

"Whatever", Shifty sighed. The words felt alien to him. "I'm…I'm sorry about everything…."

"It's okay I guess…"

Shifty tilted his hat over his shady face, hiding the face that he was at the verge of tears. Beside him, Lifty massaged the wound on his cheek, feeling the blood continue to trickle down. The gash was deep. Not just deep, but medical-attention deep. In any suitable family, he would be rushed to the hospital. _But this isn't a suitable family, is it Shifty?_

"Maybe we shouldn't steal things when he's home anymore", Lifty sighed. "Maybe we should just wait for him to go to sleep and we'll eat dinner later".

"I don't feel like eating dinner tonight", Shifty said suddenly. "I don't want to eat ever again".

The whole ordeal had hurt him bad. It only proved his philosophy: life really did suck. If you weren't prepared for it, and knew how to play it like a game, it would be cruel to you and offer no mercy. That was why he needed to boss his brother around. That was why he needed to smile his confident smile like a disguise when he entered a room.

Most of all, it was why both of them needed to be kleptos.

Lifty gingerly felt the cut on his face. "I'm going to sleep".

"It's only 7:00, Lifty".

"Like I said, I'm going to sleep".

Still massaging the bleeding cut on his face gingerly, Lifty turned around and fell limply onto the bottom of the bunk beds that the twins shared. Besides this bed, tacky black wallpaper, and a rusty black-and-white television, this was there room. They didn't even have their own closet. _And again, this is a childhood we grew up in.._

"Shifty, what would you say if I had a crush on someone?"

It was so off-topic from what had just happened that Shifty almost laughed for a second. It was just that bizarre. Instead of answering, he merely stared down at Lifty lying on his bed with a bewildered look on his face. He started climbing up the ladder, completely at lost for words. His brother, as it turned out, had expected this".

"What?" Lifty asked. "Do you seriously want to keep talking about what just happened? I've been thinking about this all day and I want to get it off my mind".

"I guess I wouldn't care", Shifty said as he stretched out on the top box and hung his fedora on the bed post. "Is she in any of our classes?"

It seemed strange to Shifty that Lifty would be the one to say something like this.  
He was much more outgoing at school than Lifty, who was much more shy and secluded. He liked being the center of attention, and when he wasn't stealing from his classmates, he was often a very social person. True, his reputation had earned him little to no friends, but he still liked to think of himself as a social person. He also knew he was a pretty lonely person, but that was something he would rather not think about.

"Yep", Lifty said with a yawn.

"Well, who is it?"

"Petunia".

Shifty nodded. Although she wasn't the prettiest girl in their school, Petunia was definitely high on the list. She had a spunky and bubbly personality and always smelled nice probably because of the pine air freshener she wore around her neck on a string. Then again, she was a nice girl. And they were thieves. There was really no coming together.

Shifty shrugged. "She's pretty, I guess".

"I don't know why I suddenly like her, but it just came out nowhere. But do you think she would even care enough to notice someone like me? We're so different".

"You're poor and steal money and she's bubbly and plants flowers", Shifty said. "Maybe opposites attract, you know?"

"Maybe they do, Shifty…"

Seeing their conversation was getting awkward, Shifty sighed and switched on the television with the remote he usually stuffed against his mattress. In an instant, static nearly overshadowed the audio and the voice of the black-and-white reporter on the screen was almost inaudible. Normally, they would watch something else besides the news, but their room didn't have any cable. Only the living room had cable and there was no way they were going outside again. Yawning and feeling his eyes glaze over, Shifty really only half-watched what was unfolding on TV.

"That was a tragic story, Mark", the panda reporter sighed into her microphone. "Now, we have a strange story unfolding in nearby Tree County. Strange weather patterns, following the series of storms last week, have been unfolding in the quiet town of Pleasant Falls".

Shifty's ears perked up under his fedora. Pleasant Falls was merely ten miles south from Happy Tree.

"Here's a story to baffle meteorologists and science geeks alike. You see, it' s common sense that clouds move. However, a certain cloud behind me hasn't moved at all. Instead, it has been stationary over the entire town of Joy Tree, spanning about a mile across in total. And that's not even the strangest part. You see, the color of this cloud is the really bizarre thing that's got people talking: citrus orange. While the cloud began as merely a light shade of orange, it has been gaining color all day. Meterologists are baffled and some residents have fled town in fear before the cloud begins to shower rain, which local experts have predicted will occur around nine-o-clock tonight. Questions have been raised from locals if this cloud is the result of the chemical explosion at the Mercero power plant several miles away from Tree County, but nothing is known for sure yet. Waiting for more information. Along with this, Joy Tree is the sight of the annual county hockey tournament which will take place next week. Back to you guys at the studio".

Shifty stared at the static picture on the black-and-white screen. Although the television had no color, he could see the exotic color of the cloud and how it was completely still in the sky. It just sat there dumbly in the sky, hanging with a strange sense that it wasn't ever going to move. For a second, he almost spared a thought about it. Then, deciding it was just one of those things; he sighed and rolled over in his bed.

Thoughts ping-ponged around in his head. Someday, he wouldn't have to wear that hat or an intimidating smile on his face when he entered a room. Someday, his parents would stop fighting or cease to exist all together. Someday, Lifty and him would no longer have to steal to let out their anger or just to prove a point. Someday things would get better. _Someday…_

For a second, Shifty considered crying for how all of these _somedays_ would never happen. But that was laughable. He hadn't cried any tears for himself in almost five years and he was proud of it. Too de-sensitized to consider much of anything else in his life, he forced himself into a night where he wouldn't get much sleep.

Two hours later, exactly ten miles away, a dark orange cloud finally began to rain over the small country town of Pleasant Falls. Merely an hour later, almost everybody that had been outside was dead.


	2. How Things Change

**Awaiting Change**

* * *

When Shifty woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that his brother was no longer lying on the bottom bunk. For as long as he knew, the raccoon with the fedora had been an incurable insomniac with the habit of lying awake in his bed until the sun rose. Lifty was another story. The moment his head touched the pillow he was out. Even the fact that his face had been bleeding the night before hadn't stopped him from falling asleep right away. Shifty was usually the first of the two to get up while his brother would sleep all day if nobody stopped him. That was why it was strange that his partner was gone.

Turning his head around on his pillow, Shifty saw a piece of paper with his brother's handwriting lying near the ladder. Picking it up and rubbing his eyes, he started to read:

_S-_

_Left early to go get breakfast. Didn't want to wake you. Cut still hurts. Don't know if I should go buy something at the pharmacy for it. Too many questions. I'll be uptown if you're looking for me._

_-L_

Yawning and crumbling up the note, he grabbed his fedora hanging at the bedpost and put it on his head. Climbing down the ladder, his mood elevated when he realized that it was the weekend. Not just the weekend, but Saturday. Saturdays were special to Shifty. Instead of going to a school of strangers where he had to put up an act just to fit in, he could sleep in and get up when he felt like it.

Walking out into the living room of their apartment, the first thing he noticed was that his father had thankfully fallen asleep on the couch. The television was now static, and by the looks of it, he'd passed out watching late-night shows after striking Lifty. His mother was nowhere to be seen. Working three jobs to support her family, she left at the crack of the dawn and didn't return until early in the evening. His father had apparently had a job once, but after his anger management had resulted in a fight with co-worker, he'd been fired. He'd given up looking for a new career soon after.

Walking past the couch, Shifty didn't mind the lack of any feeling he felt for his father. All of the anger had melted away long ago, leaving him with plain indifference. He just plaintively couldn't care less about anyone but himself. Sure, things hadn't always been that way, but it didn't matter. He was happy, wasn't he?

Pushing through the front door, he looked out onto the stairwell of apartments. With the sky hazy from the early spring weather, the high-rise was flooded with fog and clothes-lines. Stepping out onto the rickety stairwell, he took vague notice of the different apartments. Most of them were abandoned, but the majority of them were inhabited by criminals. For some it may have been frightening, but for Shifty, it was a close sense of home. Then again, that wasn't to say that their apartment building didn't have its share of nutcases

Climbing down onto the third story, he couldn't help but cringe at the door next to their apartment. Boarded up and covered with enough caution tape to wrap the entire neighborhood, the green bear that lived inside was a recluse who hardly ever went out. Having spent some time in Vietnam, the rumors that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder kept people away. The occasional screaming coming from inside helped to.

"_Things are crazy around here_", the raccoon thought as he reached the ground floor. "_How does a building like this even get built?"_

Walking out into the street and down the sidewalk to the stop, Shifty waited five minutes until the bus came. Taking a seat in the back, he tried to relax as the bus crossed the street and headed north.

And if he looked back into the sky in the south, he would have seen the hint of an orange cloud approaching in the distance.

* * *

Shifty found his brother at Happy Burger.

Along with the school, a few scattered woodland houses, and a local amusement park, uptown Happy Tree was also home to everyone's favorite awful burger chain: Happy Burger. Specializing in half-decent food and a supposed family-friendly atmosphere, it was more of a hang-out than a place to eat. There'd apparently been a freak accident there awhile ago where a skunk working behind the counter had her face slammed into the grill by a maniac, and then there were all of the health violations that had nearly shut it down, but all in all, it was a typical fast-food restaurant.

Walking in through the doors, Shifty's eyes found his brother right away. Sitting alone in one of the far booths, he was snacking on a plate of fries. The cut on his face had dried overnight, but the lack of any kind of treatment didn't go unnoticed. People kept staring at him and whispering as they passed his table.

Walking over, he noticed a leather object in his brother's hands: a wallet. Sliding into the booth, grabbing a fry, and getting an acknowledging nod from his brother, Shifty smirked at him.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Some fat lady", Lifty replied. "She was too busy yelling about her kid's order at the counter to notice she left all of her cash out in the open. People should really be more careful with their things". Counting the money, his eyes gleamed. "There's got to be at least five-hundred in here. Maybe more".

"Any chance of splitting our profits?"

"I stole it", Lifty said. "Not you".

"Since when has that meant anything before?"

Rolling his eyes, Lifty pulled a few fifties out of the wallet and tossed it across the table. Quickly folding the money, Shifty's ears perked when he realized that a small group of people were sitting in the booth behind them. In the mood for eavesdropping, he glanced over and took quick notice of how it was. Cuddles, Giggles, Toothy and Flaky. A rabbit, a chipmunk, a beaver and a porcupine respectively, they were a tight circle of friends who all went to school with the raccoon brothers. Lifty and Shifty weren't close to them at all for the plain fact that they'd robbed each of them at least once.

"So your skateboard's still missing a wheel?" Cuddles's voice asked.

"I tried a bunch of repair shops last night", Toothy said. "I didn't get an answer back from any of them".

"There's no way their lists were all filled up".

"No", Toothy said. His voice clouded over. "You didn't let me get to the weird part. I tried seven repair shops last night from the phonebook last night. _Seven. _For every single one I tried, the signal was disconnected. Just to make sure it wasn't just a faulty line on my phone or something, I called my neighbor and the call got through fine. It wasn't me".

"That's weird", Giggles said as she took a sip from her drink. "I guess we'll have to do something else today".

"But it's not fair", Cuddles complained. "I mean, we've been planning on skating to the beach for two weeks now. Last week it was the weather and now it's the broken skateboard".

"Well, maybe it's better that way, Cuddles", said Flaky. She gave a nervous laugh. "I mean, who knows what could happen on the way to the beach. There's a lot of traffic on the highway. Those cars go really fast. Who knows if they'll even look at us when we're crossing? And I heard that ten people already drowned at lakes this season since they opened up. And then…

No longer interested, Shifty turned back to see his brother counting the stolen money. Realizing that he hadn't eaten breakfast, he eyed the half-eaten plate of french fries in the table. He reached out and grabbed one covered in ketchup.

Lifty raised an eyebrow as he watched his watched his brother snack on the fry. "Do you know what they really do to that stuff?"

"Cook it?"

"They also soak them in a vat of grease and genetically alter the potatoes so they don't break down in your stomach. Then they package them by the whole and ship them all across the country so people like us can munch on them. It's like how they say chewing gum stays in your stomach for seven years".

"You're the one that stole the money to buy it in the first place", Shifty said. "Why the hell are you telling me all of this?"

"I don't know", Lifty sighed. "People never really know what they're eating. It's weird when you think about it. If people are cramming stuff into their bodies, they should take the time to figure out what it actually is. I just like to take the time to know".

"Has anyone ever told you how damn weird you are?" Shifty asked.

Lifty glared and help himself to another fry. The cut on his face looked even more swollen now, and by the looks of it, the blood had completely caked over.

"I'm not going to the doctor", Lifty said, almost answering his brother's question when he noticed he was staring. "If I go in there with a cut this big on my face, they're going to ask me how something like this happened. Then I'll have to make up some cover-up story, and before we know it, the child services will be at our door ready to whisk us ten miles away".

"That thing's going to get infected though, man", Shifty said. "In fact, it probably already has. You really should get it checked out".

"I'm not going".

"Then what the hell are you going to do? Wait until it gets so swollen they have to take you to the emergency room? There sure won't be a lot of questions there!"

Lifty rolled his eyes. "Remember in biology at school last week?"

"I skipped biology last week", Shifty responded. "I've skipped biology for a month".

"Yeah, well, I show up sometimes. When infection comes in, the body defends itself in every way it can. It pushes itself to the point where it reaches its breaking point. It's full potential. After that, everything cools down and two things can happen. You either become a medical miracle and heal or you die".

"Do you really like being a statistic?' Shifty asked.

Lifty shrugged. "I like taking risks. Anyway, let's get out of here".

Picking up the tray with a few greasy fries still on it, Shifty slid out of his chair to throw his garbage away. It turned out to be the worst timing possible. In the booth next to them, Cuddles ended up getting at that exact same time to throw out his half-eaten salad. Each one unprepared to face the other when they got up, the raccoon and the rabbit collided and were both knocked to the ground. Cuddles threw out his tray as a reaction, splattering Shifty's fur with croutons and ranch dressing. The fries went flying into the air and decorated them both.

Most people would be embarrassed by the entire restaurant looking at them, but Shifty had grown used to eyes staring at him. Picking a crouton out of his fur, he smiled darkly at Cuddles.

"Any reason you decided to do that?'

To his surprise, the rabbit didn't seem to be intimidated by him. Cuddles gave an angry glare as he picked himself up from Happy Burger's waxed floor.

"Leave me alone, Shifty", he said. "I'm not in the mood".

"What did you say to me?" Shifty snapped

Glancing up, he watched as Giggles sighed and slammed her Coke onto the counter. A pretty girl, Shifty probably would have had a crush on her if she wasn't just a bubbly ditz. Shaking her head, she got up from her seat and put a reassuring hand on Cuddle's shoulder.

"Just leave him alone, Cuddles", Giggles said. "it's not worth it. And Shifty, stop looking for a fight wherever you go. He didn't bother you. C'mon, let's get out of here".

With one last scowl at the raccoon brothers, Giggles practically dragged Cuddles out of Happy Burger before he had a chance to say anything. Following them shortly afterwards, Toothy slid out of his seat with his drink and gave them a weak smile before walking after his friends. It looked to Shifty that he just didn't want to get involved.

"You have ranch dressing on your hat", Lifty noted. He was standing behind him.

With a glare, Shifty quickly ran his fingers over the brim of his hat and stood up from the ground. Sensing that whatever happened was over, most of the customers that had been watching them went back to eating their breakfast.

"Sorry about that", a quiet voice said.

The two turned to see that Flaky was still sitting in the booth. A red porcupine who suffered from dandruff, it was often hard to start a conversation with her before she became paranoid and hurried away. But she was talking now. Glancing at them with weary eyes, she stood up from the table and gave them a small smile.

"Cuddles is just upset about some stupid thing we were planning to do today", Flaky said. "It's no big deal. Besides, there's other things he should be worrying about instead of trips to the beach".

Lifty stared. "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing really. It's just these weird feelings I get sometimes. I wake up in the morning and think of all of the things that can go wrong in the day. I'm a coward, I guess. This morning was different though. I got up and I had this feeling that by the end of today, everything is going to change. We're all going to go through something that's going to change us, but in the meantime, it's going to tear the world apart".

"What are you talking about?' Shifty asked blankly.

"Nothing", Flaky sighed. "Sorry I even brought it up. Just remember. I get feelings a lot, and most of the time, I turn out to be right". She sighed. "Watch your backs".

Turning away from them, Flaky filed in her friends' direction toward the exit, leaving the two raccoons alone. Then she vanished through the glass door.

"Weird girl", Lifty laughed.

"Forget about her", he said. "She's just trying to scare us. What do you want to do today?"

"I don't know", Lifty replied. "I'm kind of bored".

Shifty grinned. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?'

* * *

The uptown jewelry store was a favorite target of the raccoon brothers. Along with the fact that the moose who worked behind the counter was an idiot, the lack of any security system made it incredibly easy to pocket anything and walk out with it. Whenever he stole something, even just for the hell of it, Shifty always felt a rush of excitement. The feeling of his hands touching something valuable had always given him a rush of adrenaline. Sometimes he wondered if he had serious mental issues, but after awhile, he just decided it was best not to care.

"How much do you think all the jewelry in there could go for?" Lifty asked as they walked into the parking lot. Both of them had rummaged through the dumpsters until they'd found pillow cases to hide their loot in.

"A lot", Shifty replied. "That's nothing compared to what other people are going to pay for it when we sell it to them though".

Lifty glared. "We're splitting the profits though, right?"

"Yeah", Shifty replied not really listening. "Yeah whatever".

He glanced out across the parking lot at the strip mall in front of him. The store was there, nestled between a local candy store and a dry cleaner's. The glass display window was filled with enough gold to make his eyes water.

"How are we going to get him out of the way?' Lifty asked.

"Hold-up?" Shifty said sarcastically.

"No way man. They take you straight to the county prison for stuff like that! Even worse if something goes wrong! There's no way I'm going in a cell agai-

"I was joking, idiot", Shifty sighed. "We'll just have to come up with something else".

Almost like answering their question, a bicycle rode into the parking lot of the strip mall. Glancing around, the two raccoons watched as Nutty parked his bike into the rack with his jittery hands. Fumbling with the lock, he finally closed it and laughed his strange laugh for no reason. A squirrel with an unhealthy obsession with sugar, most people tended to avoid him because they were either scared or thought he was weird. In fact, some thought it was more than that. There were stories that Nutty took about ten different bedside pills to calm down his hyperactivity. Usually viewing people as pawns instead of judging them on character, Shifty wouldn't have even cared if he had two heads. All that mattered was that he was willing to help them out.

Shifty grinned. "Hey Nutty!"

The squirrel grinned back. "Hi Shifty!"

"Enough with the small talk. Do you want to make twenty bucks?'

"I can't right now", Nutty said. He was smiling again for no particular reason. "I want the chocolate. I'm going to buy it". His grin widened. "I'm going to buy it all".

"Tell you what", Lifty said as he reached into the stolen wallet. "Get the moose behind that counter over there away and we'll give you twenty whole dollars so you can buy all of the candy that you want".

The squirrel's eyes lit up like he'd just struck gold. He didn't seem to care that he was being talked to like a young child who was being bribed into doing something. Snatching the wad of cash out of Lifty's hands, he dashed off toward the jewelry store. Vanishing through the swaying, glass doors, he suddenly looked like he was frantic and out of breathe. What he said to the moose was unclear, but in a matter of seconds, they both ended up running out of the store. With a look of dignified stupidity on his face, the moose ran blindly out of the parking lot while Nutty screamed something about, "the accident being just up the road!"

"Ready when you are", Lifty whispered with a smile.

With their problem out of the way, the two walked onward toward the store. The moment they opened the door, Shifty felt his heart gave a leap. All of the shimmering gold in one place was almost enough to make him pass out. There were aisles of bracelets, a display case of earrings by the counter, a whole section of necklaces and several other knick-knacks that he thought looked too expensive for him to know the name of. It was there equivalent to heaven.

"I call the bracelets", Lifty said quickly.

As his brother dashed down the aisle, Shifty quickly opened the brim on his pillowcase and ran down the columns of jewelry. Swiping whatever he could get his hands on, he listened to the sound of the gold jingling inside the bag. To some it was theft, but to Shifty with his pillowcase, he treated it like trick-or-treating for criminals. Grabbing a pair of earrings from the display case and dumping them in, he was just wondering when the moose would be coming back when he saw it.

_The diamond._

It was the biggest thing in the entire store. In the center of the whole complex like a mantelpiece, it was shining obsidian and lighting up the entire room with different reflections of glass. It was surrounded by a glass box, but the hinges not being locked only elevated his dreams. Not needing anyone to tell him to strike, Shifty rushed forward and grinned at his reflection in the glass. Swinging open the case, he made a snatch for the diamond.

It was just rotten luck that the store had installed an alarm.

The moment his hands touched it, the alarms in the store blared on and everything flashed into red. Hidden heat-sensing security cameras suddenly extended out of their panels on the wall, turning to face them in a second. Feeling his heart skip a beat, Shifty glanced around the store. _Security camera's by the counter. Definitely saw us by now. God, there's thousands of dollars worth of stuff in here, isn't there? You can go to jail for stuff like that._

Lifty didn't need to talk to his brother to strategize what to do next. Giving him a short nod, he dashed toward the front door with his head bowed to the security camera. With the room still flashing in lights from the counter, he quickly vanished out into the street.

"SPLIT UP!" he called back. "I'LL MEET YOU BACK HOME!"

Not needing his brother to tell him this, Shifty grabbed the golden bracelet and quickly shoved it onto his wrist. Running toward the front door after his brother, he bowed his head under his fedora and prayed that they wouldn't be able to identify him. Rushing down the aisles of jewelry, the urge in his hands was too tempting. He snatched a row of golden necklaces, followed by a cushion with several silver earrings laying on it. However, when he was at the door, he froze.

There hadn't been many times in Shifty's lives when he'd had an epiphany. Usually going from one heist to the next, he'd never really had time to reflect on anything. On the other hand, what he suddenly felt at the edge of the jewelry store wasn't exactly an epiphany. If anything, it was a feeling. A strange feeling that for no good reason, things were going to change. Maybe it was just confusion over Flaky's warning or maybe it was just him finally crashing from all of the pressure that had been on him lately, but whatever the cause, the feeling was there. Things were going to change. He couldn't tell if it was going to be for good or bad, but in the end, it would be like how a pebble into a lake affected every ripple in a tide. Nothing was going to be the same.

In the back of his mind, Flaky's words crept up to him.

"_I get feelings sometimes",_ the porcupine had said. _"and most of the time, I turn out to be right"._

Hearing the sound of cop sirens in the distance, reality kicked back in and the raccoon ran for it.

* * *


	3. The Coming of the Storm

**The Coming of the Storm**

* * *

"_Gotta hide…gotta hide…" _

The raccoon dashed out into the parking lot feeling like everything was moving with the hazy quality of dream. Police sirens were blaring in the distance, seeming only a block away when they could really be anywhere. Lifty was nowhere in sight. By the look of it, he'd done the sensible thing and fled for his life.

"_He'll get home",_ Shifty thought quickly. _"He'll do the smart thing and get home. Nothing's going to happen. He'll get there"._

He wasn't entirely convinced. Swearing under his breath, he looked around for anything that could provide a quick getaway. The parking lot was practically devoid of cars. He could make a run for it, but he'd seen enough police chases on TV to know that the last thing you ever wanted to do was take off on foot.

Then he looked at Nutty's bicycle that he'd clumsily locked onto to the rack. Not needing his conscience to tell him otherwise, he quickly knelt down and fingered with the bike lock. It jingled for a few seconds, unwilling to cooperate, but he finally managed to tear it open. Wheeling out the bike from the rack, he jumped on it as quickly as he could and began to pedal out of the parking lot. The sirens were even louder now. He pedaled faster.

The dirt road beside the strip mall opened up into dense woods. Swerving out of the parking lot in an arc, the shadow of the trees above him told him he was safe in the forest. Realizing that the cops were probably about a block away from the jewelry store by now, he rode faster until the sounds of the busy road were silenced by the forest. A dirt path opened up after a few moments, winding in and out of different clearings of trees.

"_God damn it Nutty",_ he thought bitterly. _"You have to fix the brakes on this thing. This thing wasn't going to last you a week before it fell apar-_

Shifty was unprepared when he was hit by the oncoming bike.

Flying over the handlebars, he felt somebody's body brush against him as he landed hard in the middle of the trail. The feeling that he had scratched his ribs on the handlebars ran through him, sending a feeling of pain all throughout his waist. Moaning and glancing back, he noticed a figure of a girl hunched over on her knees with her mangled bike sitting beside her. _Uh oh._

"I think you dropped this", the girl groaned.

She was holding the pillow case of jewelry. He realized that he recognized her from school. It was Petunia. A blue skunk who always an air freshener around her neck for some reason, he didn't talk to her much in because of how different their backgrounds were. While Shifty came from a lower-class family that had been struggling to put together enough money to move uptown for ages, Petunia lived in the more upper-class suburban area of Happy Tree.

"Thanks", Shifty said. He reached out as quickly as he could and snatched the bag of stolen valuables. He glanced over at her mangled bike. "Uhhhh….Sorry about that…"

"That bike took me half of my earnings for six months of working at Happy Burger", she sighed. "Anyway, since you're the one who crashed into me, you shouldn't be asking the questions. Are you going to tell me why you're running through the forest on a bike that's obviously not yours with a bag full of gold?"

She was smiling at him. She actually had the nerve to smile at him. Not bothering to respond, he shook his head and walked over to Nutty's bike. By the look of it, it was mangled just as bad as Petunias. The handlebars had been completely cracked in half while one of the wheels had deflated. _Great. Just great._

"Hey, are you going to answer me or not?"

"No", Shifty snapped. "Do you know the quickest way to get back downtown from the woods?"

"There's a trail about halfway down through the forest by a stream. If you follow it and take the left fork by the hill, it'll take you out".

"You sure?"

"I ride my bike down here a lot when I'm bored", she said. "It helps me think sometimes. You'd be surprised how deep these woods go. You're name's Shifty, right?'

He stared. "How did you know that?"

"We go to the same school. It kind of helps to know everyone around here. You have a twin brother, too".

"Yeah", he said absently. "I do".

Not in the mood to listen to her anymore than he had to, he dragged his bike up from the ground and listened to the painful sound of the deflated tire screeching. Walking away and hauling the bicycle with him, he cringed when he heard her voice again.

"Hey, you never answered my question", Petunia called out. "Did you steal it or not?"

"Yes, I stole it!" Shifty yelled back angrily. "I went into the damn jewelry store and stole every last thing I can get my hands on! Are you happy now?"

"I didn't want to offend you or anything", she said with wide eyes. "I mean, I was just asking. I don't have any problem with you stealing, y'know. If it's your thing that's fine with me".

"It's none of your business", Shifty said. "Why are you even talking to me?"

"You just crashed into me and completely totaled my bike!" she cried. "Why do you think?"

"You've got a good point there", he sighed. Somehow able to wheel the ruined bike along the path, he started to push the deflated tire along. Then, realizing the skunk was still staring at him, he sighed and turned back.

"Look", he said. "I'm going home now. It's great that you want to talk and everything, but I'm kind of busy right now". He paused for a second. "Hey, you're not the kind of person that would rat me out to the cops, right?"

"Of course not!"

"Good. You'll be hearing the sirens in a couple of minutes when they finally get smart enough to figure out that I went into the woods. If any of them ask you anything, I knocked you over and kept speeding through the woods on my bike. I can be anywhere by now. Anyway, I'm going to g-

And that was when, after days of false warnings that nobody heeded, the orange cloud finally arrived.

* * *

It came slowly. Darkening the sky as it rolled in like dust storm, it made the countryside for miles seem like it was shadowed by a great dome. The orange tint was what really got people noticing it though. It draped the sky and seemed to swirl within every inch of the cloud, making the entire thing look like some kind of abstract aurora borealis. Every so often bright white would flash in the atmosphere above it like a lightning storm going on thousands of feet in the air. Even though it had been 2:34 PM when the cloud arrived, the level of darkness that it had brought made it seem like nightfall. At that moment, it was impossible for anyone outside within two miles of Happy Tree to not look up mesmerized at the sky.

And then it started to rain.

* * *

Shifty and Petunia looked up at the cloud like it was a spaceship that had just landed. Just for its appearance alone though, it might as well have been. Citrus orange and looking clogged with fluids, it looked more like a damp wet towel hovering in the air than anything else. Every so often it would flash soundless white, lightning up the heavens above it. In just a few seconds, the afternoon looked like it had been shadowed into night.

"What the hell is that?" Shifty said in an awed voice.

"No idea…", Petunia said. She sounded just as shocked. "I don't like the look of it though…"

At that moment, with a chattering sound like thousands of people talking over each other, it started to pour rain. Not just the liquid rain that usually came from storm clouds, but a fluorescent orange rain that seemed to light up everything for miles. Like thousands of miniature lanterns falling, the rain drops decanted into a rapid downfall.

"OW!"

The rain literally burned. The moment it touched Shifty's fur, it seemed to skin him alive and fill every pore with fire. Cringing and looking at his wrist where it had first touched, he realized that it wasn't just dripping off either. It moved like an amoeba up and down his skin, almost like it was searching for something to seep into to get underneath. _An opening… a wound…God, what the hell is going on?_

Alarmed, he screamed outloud and began to swat at his arm. By that time though, it felt like his entire body was engulfed in flaming needles. The rain had come down in a complete downpour, making all of the trees in the woods sound like a choir of instruments. The wind roared through the branches, making them chatter as they clattered against each other.

"I don't know about you", he said worriedly. "but I think it's time to get out of here".

He didn't even need to say it. She was way ahead of him. Howling in pain from the rain touching her, she was dashing off through the trees, completely forgetting about her newly ruined bike. For a second Shifty considered bringing the pillow case of gold along, but a few dollars in cash from stolen jewelry wasn't worth his life. After all, especially because of the strange feelings of change he'd been having all day, he had the awkward feeling that there weren't even going to be jewelry stores to rob very soon.

"HEY, WAIT UP!" he cried.

Without any thoughts in his mind anymore, Shifty thanked his fedora for concealing his head from the rain and dashed after the skunk. The trees did little to cloak them from the rain, but the pain was a little more bearable now. Lightning crackled in the sky and it was like nothing he'd ever heard before. Instead of a sharp bolt, it sounded like operatic singing mixed with a trash compactor. It was strange, but of all things, he had been a fan of lightning. Most people were scared of it, but to him, he provided a close sense of security. A sense of family.

"_There was a time when I was little…_", he remembered suddenly. _"It was raining outside. Not as bad as this, but it was still raining. There was lightning everywhere. Me and Lifty, God, we must have been little. We're trying to go to sleep on the couch but we can't…"_

It was a good memory though, because despite the lightning, there'd been a sense of peace between him and his brother. No matter what happened at that moment, they knew they would have each other. The memory was long gone though. Just like the rest of them. He spent more time barking orders at Lifty now then he did actually taking the time to listen to him. Times were definitely better between them back then. _God, I hope he got inside._

Glancing up at Petunia running down the path in front of him, Shifty was blasted back to reality by another bolt of lightning. He became aware that they had run into a sparse community of woodland homes. Every so often they would pass a small cottage. Not having much of a sense of direction anymore, he merely followed Petunia through the winding little neighborhood. In the end, it turned out she didn't have much of a destination in mind either. Running up the porch steps of one of the homes, she slammed herself into the front door.

"LET US IN!" she screamed. "PLEASE, JUST LET US IN!"

Nobody answered. If there was anyone inside, they obviously weren't going to risk opening their door to complete strangers in a time like this. Slamming her fist against the door in exasperation, Petunia slid down against the doorway looking like she was about to burst into tears.

She sniffled. "God, what the hell is going on…"

"No idea", Shifty admitted as he made his way up the steps. "but we're wasting time. If we were smart, we would just kick down the door and hide inside".

"Hey, there's people in there just as scared as us, you know. There's no way I'm going to barge in there and terrorize a family out of their own home!"

"So then we're just going to die out here? That's your plan, huh? We-

"GET OVER HERE NOW!" a voice called.

The two turned to see a brown bear standing on the porch steps of the house across from them wearing a red bath robe. A new bolt of operatic-sounding lightning struck, illuminating him in a ghostly silhouette. He hid under the awing of the porch, struggling to stay out of the mighty winds of the storm.

"COME OVER!" he called. "THERE'S ROOM OVER HERE!"

Not wasting a second, they scurried back out into the street and crossed over to the house. The porch's steps looked like they had been worn-out once, but the acidic rain had seemed to have deteriorated them. Hardly able to hold on when he reached it, Shifty nearly slipped and fell flat on his face when he steadied himself on the banister.

"Be careful there now", the bear warned. "These steps will break your neck if you're not careful. C'mon, let's hurry inside".

More than willing to oblige, Shifty took his words for granted and dashed into the home ahead of the others. He pushed open the screen door, splashing orange rain water onto the carpet. The sudden end of the rain drilling into his skin was like a safe haven. Taking in a deep breath and looking around, he saw that he had entered a cozy-looking living room. Knick-knacks and different clocks seemed to take up half of the space while the rest was taken up by the many couches and chairs around the fireplace. Somehow, the ticking of the clocks seemed to drone out the sound of the apocalypse going on outside.

Glancing around the room, he was surprised to find one of the most unexpected things: a baby bear.

It was sleeping peacefully on the couch, awakened by the sounds of the lightning and thunder outside. Putting two and two together, he realized the bear that had willingly taken them into his house was a father. A blanket was wrapped around the infant, along with what seemed like a hundred different pillows. To Shifty, it looked like his father had realized the world was falling apart and tried to make his son oblivious to it. He didn't know whether to be impressed or furious. Looking up at the portrait above the fireplace, he put another piece in the mental puzzle when he saw the wedding portrait of two bears together. Considering how the mother was nowhere to be seen in the cramped cottage, their son's child birth probably hadn't been as pleasant of an experience for the family as it should have been.

Hearing the screen door open again, he looked over to see Petunia walking in hurriedly with the bear. He was holding his arm in an odd position, almost cradling it.

"What happened to him?" he asked.

"He slipped when he was coming up the steps", Petunia said worriedly. "There was a nail sticking out of the side of the porch. He cut up his arm pretty bad; I think he might end up needing stitches".

"It hurts…" the bear moaned. "I…I got some rain in it…

When he walked into the living room, Shifty' stomach almost churned when he saw his arm in the light. It was a very deep gash, going from his elbow all the way to his wrist. Most of it had been soaked in his blood that was now dripping to the floor. However, that wasn't the troubling part. The orange rain that had soaked into it was churning it like a glowing broth, making his veins almost light up in a sickly red color. Steam literally rose from it like a fog machine.

"Jesus…" Petunia gasped.

"I need to sit down…" the bear said frantically. "Cub….Where's Cub?"

"Your son's over here on the couch", Petunia said reassuringly. "He's fine. Here, why don't you just calm down and I'll help you into the chair"

For an odd second it looked like the bear was going to protest, but he let Petunia walk him over to the comfy-looking chair near the fireplace. He left a trail of smoke in the air seeping from his arm wound.

"I'm Pop", he said.

"I'm Petunia and he's Shifty. Thanks a lot for what you did for us. It means a lot".

Pop smiled weakly. "Don't mention it. I think anyone who wouldn't have taken you kids in during a time like this is sick in the head".

But there was something very strange about the way he said it. His eyes became unfocused when he talked, and there was an uncomfortable laugh in his voice. It looked to Shifty like he was getting tense. Petunia seemed to notice too because she raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you don't want anything for your wound?" she asked. "If you just tell us where the medicine is we can probably get you something".

"I'm fine", Pop said. He didn't sound it. "Trust me, I'm fine. You just look after yourselves. Nobody around here has much of a clue what's going on, so I was just going to wait it out with Cubby here".

Shifty glanced over at the baby sleeping on the couch again. Despite the shocking volume of the lightning outside, he seemed relatively unfazed by the whole situation.

"Do you have any idea of what it is though?" Petunia asked.

"Government testing gone wrong maybe", Pop replied with a shrug. "I don't have half a clue to tell you the truth. There's going to be tons of conspiracy theories until we get the truth of what's really happening". He paused. "Is there anyone else out there?"

Petunia glanced over and opened the window's blinds, instantly greeted by a shock of lightning that lit the room up in white. She squinted for a second before sighing and closing the blinds.

"I can't see anything out there…" she said sadly. "I can't even see the sidewalk…it's all just orange…"

"Figures", Pop said shortly. "Most people probably had enough common sense to not stay outside".

"What happened to the people that _did_ stay outside though?" Shifty's voice suddenly cut into the room. He stayed in the corner, almost frightened that going near anyone else would put him at risk. "The ones that didn't get out of the rain?"

"Look at my arm and answer that for me", Pop sighed. "I only have half of an idea".

At the mention of his wound, it let loose another burst of misty steam, this time looking much worse than anything they'd seen before. Realizing that this wasn't something they could just soothe with ointment from the medicine cabinet, Petunia's eyes lit up in shock as she backed away. Pop's eyes told a very different story. No longer the kind ones that had taken them under his wing, they almost had as violent instinct to them. Groaning in his chair, the bear glanced up at them as he curdled his ruined arm.

"You see that picture over there?' he asked.

They both looked back at the portrait of the two bears above the fireplace.

"Our wedding portrait", Pop said dimly. "Not too long ago really. Milly was pregnant with Cub only a few months after our honeymoon. I wanted to wait a little while until we had a baby, but she just kept smiling and saying that she wanted a family. I had to say yes…"

The lightning crackled outside again before Pop continued. Somewhere outside, somebody screamed.

"She died during childbirth a year ago", he said warily. "It doesn't. make any sense. She was always healthy, and out of nowhere, she just dropped dead when she was having the baby. How does that happen? I remember sitting at the funeral with Cub, not knowing what to do anymore. I did the right thing though. I mean, I did do the right thing didn't I?"

He sounded nearly mental now. Rocking back and forth in the chair, he moaned in pain as a trickle of bloody, orange rainwater gushed out of the wound. He locked his eyes on Shifty and the raccoon felt chills go up his spine.

"Funny how I'm remembering all of this now…", the bear said in a choking laugh. "Funny how your mind wanders when you're life's almost over".

There was a strange level of complete hysteria to his voice now. At this point, Petunia backed off even more to the corner, almost to the same distance of Shifty. His wound let off another blow of steam like a tea kettle. Suddenly breathing very rapidly, there was now a look of complete fury in the bear's eyes. Blood vessels broke in them, caking every vein in them in red. The wound throbbed like it had a mind of its own, up and down, _up and down…._

"_The rain got his wound…", _Shifty thought. "_and it did this to him. But there's no way. I mean, it's orange and burns like acid, but there's no way it could do this to him, right?"_

"I'm so glad that you kids could come in here…", he said. "I'm so glad…."

That was when he finally broke down. Pop's body seemed to have a convulsion in the chair. Going into a spasm, his bloodshot eyes bulged as the wound throbbed and lit off a blow off steam. Sounding like he was swallowing his own tongue, he shook in his seat in a spasmodic seizure. On the couch behind him, Cub was awake and sobbing. Pop didn't seem to care.

"WHAT DO WE DO?" Petunia shrieked. "WE CAN'T JUST LET THIS HAPPEN!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?" Shifty roared. "LOOK AT HIM!"

That was when all hell broke loose.

Like a raging animal, the thing that had been Pop leapt up from the couch and lunged at them with his hands clawed in the air. When he was an inch away from his face, Shifty realized that his eyes weren't blood-red after all. They were orange. _Rain-water orange._

He knocked Shifty to the living room floor, sending his fedora flying off his head. Petunia shrieked and struggled to pry him off, but one swipe with the monster's hand quickly made her back off. His hands now moved impossibly fast, almost capable of smashing through bricks. Missing the blow that would have decapitated her, Petunia

"I'LL BE BACK IN A SECOND!' she screamed. "STAY THERE!"

"_What else do you expect me to do?"_ Shifty thought bitterly. Glancing up at the monster's eyes, he watched in horror as the sharp claws descended on his throat. Wrapping themselves around him, they tightened their grip and began to choke the very life out of him. Cub was still bawling in the background, almost mocking the whole scenario. Feeling his airway close in on itself, he pictured his windpipe like a pencil that was about to snap.

"Glad you're here…", the monster croaked mindlessly. "Glad you're here…"

In the corner of his eye, he saw Petunia having trouble trying to pry a fireplace poker from the cabinet. Realizing he was going to die in that very living room if he didn't do something, he struggled to move his arm under the creature's weight. For a second it felt like it was impossible, especially considering how it felt like a ten-ton truck was being pressed down on him, but he finally managed to force a trembling hand out. His vision blurring as he swore he heard something popping in his throat, he resorted to his most primal instincts. He needed to get out. He needed to survive. So with that, he reached out his finger toward Pop's orange-tinted eye…

"ERGHHHH!"

The creature let out a shrill scream as the raccoon pressed hard into his pupil with his finger. Feeling blood dripping out as Pop's right eye was gouged out, Shifty didn't stop. Getting the nasty panicked feeling of being trapped underwater as he fought for breathe, he jabbed his finger in even harder. Mildly surprised at how small eye sockets were, he felt his finger scrape bone marrow at the end.

"Glad you're here…", the creature still cackled. Even with blood running down his face, he was still talking. _"Glad you're here…"_

Shifty couldn't believe that he hadn't succumbed to blood loss. It looked like whatever had triggered the change in him from the rain had almost evolved him into something stronger. Something more cut off for survival. Feeling his windpipe shaking like a twig in his neck, the raccoon forced his finger to keep pressing.

But then he couldn't press anymore.

What looked like a giant spear had ripped through the creature's belly.

Shifty could only watch it unforeseen horror as Petunia jabbed out the fireplace poker and impaled Pop in the back from behind. Like a macabre javelin, it pierced all the way in and came out through his stomach. He almost vomited when he saw that his spine was clearly visible. The living room walls around them were decorated with blood like rose petals. With the contents of his stomach dumping out of his belly, Pop howled and fell to the floor in a pool of his own blood. Scurrying away to his feet, Shifty quickly found his fedora and took the deepest breathe he'd ever taken in his life. Massaging his throat, he looked over to see Petunia's face covered in tears.

"I killed him!" Petunia practically shrieked as she eyed the body. "Oh God, I…I killed him!"

"It's the rain", Shifty said suddenly as he slid his hat back on. "It's something in the rain. It got into his blood and it turned him into a monster…".

He immeadidly felt stupid after saying it. Shaking his head, he sighed and resigned into the chair that the bear had been sitting in moments ago. For a second he thought that the sound of lightning would calm him down like it usually did, but not this lightning. It sounded like an opera singer being skinned alive. Feeling a migraine coming on, he looked warily across the living room at Petunia. She had picked up a screaming, bawling Cub and was rocking him back and forth. For some odd reason when he looked at the infant, all he could think about was Lifty. _God, I hope he was smart enough to get inside._

"What are we going to do?" Petunia said softly. She was on the verge of tears. "What the hell are we going to do?"

"Hey, I don't know what we're going to do, alright?" Shifty snapped. "Just let me think of something for a second. I don't know what's going on anymore than any of you do. Maybe if we put our heads together we can figure out what-

"There's not even anything to put our damn heads together for!" Petunia practically howled. "I mean, the whole world just went nuts. None of it makes any sense. None-

She didn't have time to finish. Pop's corpse suddenly sprung to life and grabbed Shifty's ankle with his bloody hand.

The raccoon screamed and leapt up from his seat like it was an electric chair. Shaking desperately, he was only half aware of the fact that the bear was trying to dig his way through his skin with his fingers. Petunia screamed and dashed for the fireplace poker again, but Shifty acted before her. Spinning around the room wildly with the thing that had been Pop clinging to his foot, he looked around at anything he could use to defend himself. Or at least pry the thing off.

His eyes locked on one of the most inhuman things he could use. Part of him felt sick in his stomach just contemplating doing it, but the other half was screaming at him to stop being an idiot. To fight for survival like anyone else would do in the situation. When Pop's fingers began to shed blood out of his ankle, he made his decision quickly.

Shifty grabbed the first thing he had seen: the family portrait hanging over the fireplace.

He bashed the wooden side of it hard into Pop's hard, sending a splatter of fur, brain matter, and blood out across the spotless living room. It was shocking how easy his head broke apart. It was almost like the rain had completely broken down and weakened his body. The bear howled in pain from his wound, but he was quickly silenced by the second blow that officially ended his brain activity. The picture frame imbedded itself into his face with a dull thud, gouging out his eye and slicing it apart with the splintering wood.

Outside, the operatic lightning crackled outside again. Inside, Shifty felt like screaming. Not just for Pop, but for the plain confusion in that he didn't know what the hell was going on. It was like the entire world had completely fallen apart over the span of the thirty minutes between the jewelry store and the woods. In pure exhaustion, he slammed the picture frame into the bear's head a final time with a satisfying crack.

In the corner of the room, a sobbing Cub was in the arms of Petunia who was trying to rock him to sleep, looking like she was at the edge of a nervous breakdown. Shifty could relate.

* * *

**A/N: What exactly is in the rain that changes people will be explained shortly.**


	4. Downtown

**Pandemic**

* * *

Twenty minutes later, they sat in the kitchen with an uncomfortable silence between them. The stench of the blood wafting in from the living room was over powering. They knew they should have been concerned that the blood leaking from the bear's head was no longer dark red, but bright orange, but hiding the body in the living room closet had been an easy remedy to the problem. Sure, it made them feel unbelievably guilty, but it was an easy remedy. All they had to do was take one look at the bear's savage-looking face to realize that morals really didn't matter anymore.

"We should hide the body somewhere", Petunia said suddenly. "We can't just leave it in there forever",

"The police aren't going to care that he's dead when they see that his eyes are orange", Shifty replied. "and something tells me they're not going to be arresting anyone for a long time now".

"But we killed him", Petunia cried. "We bashed his head in for Christ's sake! Don't you think they're definitely going to care that we committed first-degree murder?"

'Hey, _I'm_ the one who killed him. Not you. You don't have to put all of the blame on yourself too".

She glared. "Well, sorry if I'm a little panicked here! He invited us into his home and we murdered him!"

To this Shifty didn't have anything to respond with. The sound of Cub crying in the living room resulted in Petunia sighing and walking out of the room. He watched her step out into the living room, leaving footprints in Pop's blood that had leaked from the living room onto the kitchen floor. At one point it had been the darkest red they'd ever seen in their life, but after most of the fluids had drained out, they'd come to the realization that it had become a washed-out looking orange.

Eyeing the blood and listening to Cub crying, he looked in front of him at the white box of Lo mein noodles sitting at the table. It gave him a sick feeling in his stomach.

Petunia had been entirely against raiding the kitchen's fridge. According to her, it was like, "dancing on someone's grave". He didn't think so though. After all, it seemed like a given that this was what the bear would have wanted them to do. Unfortunately, all Pop's corpse had to offer them was a box of leftover Chinese take-out and a broken microwave. So he'd rummaged a fork out of the drawer and settled on noodles. The food hadn't helped though. He thought stealing food right out of someone's fridge would help him think. After all, it was at least guaranteed to make things seem like a normal day to him again. But it hadn't. All it had done was give him a cold feeling in his mouth and make him remember that he hated Chinese food.

Reaching out and shoving one last freezing fork-full of noodles into his mouth, he sighed and got up from the kitchen table. Careful to avoid stepping in the blood as he walked into the living room, he gazed over at Petunia sitting in the same chair that the bear had been resting in.

"He's falling back asleep", she said, talking more to herself than him. "poor little guy…"

"Forget the kid", Shifty sighed. "There's no way we're just going to keep sitting here arguing. Let's decide what to do now before it's too late".

"We can hide", Petunia said quickly. "We can hide and that's all we're going to do. There's no way I'm leaving".

"Not facing your problems isn't going to solve anything, you know".

"If I face my problems I'm going to die! I'm not leaving this house!"

She was easily one of the most disagreeable people he'd ever met in his entire life. She was just refusing to admit that there was a full-scale pandemic going on just outside the house. Glaring at her, Shifty paced across the living room as he tried to think. The smell of Pop's corpse from the closet was overpowering.

"So how about we just stay in here and piece together what we know", he said. "He cut his arm on the porch outside when he was running inside. Then the rain got inside the wound and it started smoking. And after that…"

"He turned into a monster", Petunia said quietly. "We don't have to go over it all over again. It was worse enough when it happened the first time".

"This isn't a science fiction movie though. There has to be more to it".

"Maybe there's something contaminated in it", Petunia said. "There's probably something in it that changes people once it gets into their blood. It's some kind of virus. And if it's some kind of virus, the government's going to be all over it. They'll contain it!"

"Don't put your faith in them", Shifty sighed. "The best they'll do is quarantine us like some kind of zoo exhibit. And the rain cloud's moving anyway".

She glared. "How the hell do you know all of this? Why do you keep putting everything I say down? I mean, who do you think you are? You crash into my bike after robbing a store, you insult me, and then you pick up a picture frame and murder-

"There's no way you're saying you didn't have a part in that", Shifty growled. "you put a damn spear through his belly. And I'm just trying to tell the truth".

His fists were clenched. He had never known it before, but he realized now that the skunk had the uncanny ability to be dislike on short notice. At school she was one of the bubbly and outgoing girls, but now, in the face of disaster, she was hopeless. She just didn't seem to know how to take care of herself.

"Look, I'm sorry", she said, almost reading his mind. "I've judged you and I'm really sorry. I see you and your brother at school and I get the feeling that you're heartless criminals or something. Sure, you may be thieves, but you're not that. I'm sure you're nice. It's your decision if you want to steal. I really have trouble looking under the surface sometimes. Maybe we can start over or something".

But he wasn't listening to her blabbering anymore. At the very mention of his brother, a horrible truth had struck him. It was so horrible that he felt guilty for not realizing it before. Everything that had happened before the rain hit moved in a hyper reality through his mind. _That burger-joint. Flaky's warning. Talking to the weird squirrel outside the jewelry store. Running. Bicycles crashing. The night you and Lifty fought dad before all of that…Lifty's face…letter opener…_

"Petunia", he said quickly. "Remember what we just said about the rain getting into Pop's wound?

"Yeah..."

"Well, my brother has a cut on his face…"

This was what really got her listening.

* * *

Pop's house was fully stocked with clothes. That was lucky. Because of the uncertainty of what was really in the rain, neither Shifty nor Petunia had wanted to take any risks when they decided to take the trek outside again. Wrapping themselves in as many overcoats and sweatshirts they could loot from the house's closets, they lessened the risks even more by using a roll of duct tape to cover themselves like cocoons. There was no way they were going to let the rain touch their skin.

"You changed your mind pretty fast", Shifty noted as he dug through a drawer in the bedroom.

"I'm not letting me being a coward kill someone you care about", Petunia said. "Your family's the most important thing in your life. Don't ever forget that".

"I already did awhile ago".

Petunia glared. "You might say that, but in the end of the day, they're all you've got. You may not like them, but when it comes down to it, they're the only ones that you can fall back on in a time like this".

"Yeah, you don't live in my house though…"

She rolled her eyes. "Forget it…"

He forced his head into what seemed like the tenth overcoat he'd found in the closet. Duct-taping his fedora down over his head like an army helmet, he looked around and surveyed himself in the mirror beside the dresser. Hardly able to move under all of the clothes, he resembled a mannequin that had been covered in all of the merchandise in a department store. He could hardly see through the red scarf wrapped around his face, but by the look of it, there wouldn't be any rain seeping in. He was safe.

He looked over at Petunia. The brown parka she was wearing made her look like she was going to lead some kind of expedition to the arctic. The large glacier goggles she was wearing only added to the illusion. The goggles were hidden behind a full-face helmet that had been stored under the kitchen sink for some bizarre reason. All in all, she looked prepared for war. They both did.

"Do you think we should bring anything to eat with us?" Shifty asked. "I looked through the kitchen and the fridge is stocked with everything. I saw some salami and-

"I really don't want to think what would happen if that rain got in our food", Petunia said with a shudder. "and we'll eat when we have the chance to".

"Good point. What about the kid?"

"Taken care of", she replied.

She stepped out of the way to reveal Cub sitting on the floor. She'd wrapped him in what looked like twenty different shirts, making him look like a fish bowl of fabric. Glancing down at the infant, Shifty felt an odd sense of irritation. Although he wouldn't admit it to her, he was opposed to bringing the baby along with them. Looking down at it, he really couldn't force himself to see a person. All he could see was dead weight. On the other hand though, Petunia seemed to have a maternal instinct that said leaving a child behind in a pandemic was inhuman.

"Maybe we don't need all of those clothes", Petunia said. "I mean, I know for sure that I don't have a wound on me".

"Can't be too sure", Shifty said. "Even a papercut might do it. I'm ready to leave when you are".

She offered him a weak nod and, to his surprise, handed him the baby shrink-wrapped in fabric. He scowled for a second but accepted him into his arms. They filed out of the room and into the hallway. Walking down the flight of stairs, they passed framed family pictures: _Cub playing in the leaves, playing with a ball outside, the same portrait of the wedding that was now covered in blood downstairs…_

"Take one last look at your home, little guy", Shifty said.

Cub glanced up at him blankly. They reached the final step and walked into the living room, ignoring the overpowering reek of the corpse coming from the closet. Noticing that the rain was coming down even harder now through the window, he tightened the duct tape on his fedora. In front of him, Petunia kicked open the door to let in a heavy gust of wind that nearly knocked it off its hinges. It looked like the entire world was falling apart.

"We're going to die out there, aren't we?" Petunia said.

"Probably", Shifty replied. "But I'm ready when you are".

They set out into the rain.

* * *

The worst part of the journey was the bodies. They'd been scattered by the few when they were walking in the woods, but upon actually getting out into town, the sheer number of them was almost nauseating. Flooding through the clogged streets, they kept coming by the mother load. Some of them had obviously been infected by the rain, as their eyes looked more like liquid citrus than anything else, but others were harder to tell. A bear was lying in the remains of a store's display window, a shard of bloody glass ripping through his throat. A few more blocks down, they found an orange-eyed chipmunk slumped over in an alley with a bullet hole in his head. It looked like all hell had broken loose over the span of twenty minutes since the cloud had arrived. Stores had been looted, people had died, chaos had erupted, and worst of all it looked like people had accepted the pandemic like first nature.

"I think I'm going to throw up…", Petunia moaned for the third time.

They had passed the corpse of an infected squirrel spread out on the streets. Its head had been cracked open by whoever it had tried to attack and its brains were leaking out of its head in a brown paste. Its eyes seemed to stare at them as they walked by.

"This is so gross", Petunia continued. "God, this is so gross…"

"I get it, alright", Shifty snapped. "It's gross! This whole thing is gross! Just shut up already!"

"I can't help it", Petunia said. She was holding Cub in her arm's now. After not much thought, Shifty had decided that he wasn't quite up for carrying an infant. Rocking him back and forth as she walked, Petunia sighed and turned to him.

"I mean, you look at this stuff in movies and it seems like it's a world away", she sighed. "I can't look at blood like that. You never really know what it's like looking at a body until you're there looking at it".

"Blood isn't that bad", Shifty noted. "and we're probably going to end up seeing a lot of it soon enough".

"Try telling the girl with OCD that", she said with a dry laugh. "I can't stand looking at anything dirty. Especially gore like that. It just doesn't make me feel safe".

Shifty rolled his eyes. "You'd be a god awful surgeon, you know".

"How can you say that? You're not the least bit freaked out by blood at all?"

"It never really troubled me that much", he replied. "I've seen things a lot worse than someone's brain lying on a sidewalk".

"Like what?" Petunia asked.

"Ever been put through a meat grinder? Ever been shoved through a windmill? Take a ride through one dangling from a damn hot air balloon and then tell me about pain. I still have the scars".

They walked for a few more minutes. There were still bodies scattered throughout the streets, but for some reason, there seemed to be more on the road beside the woods than there did in the center of town. The lack of survivors was a little troubling, but considering how the rain burned, most of them had probably run and looked for shelter. Every so often, they would recognize a corpse on the street. Petunia recognized an infected squirrel with blood seeping out of its stomach as a girl on her cheerleading squad. Shifty realized that the sane-looking skunk they passed with its face clawed off didn't live too far away from him. It was an odd feeling seeing people they had only barely known dead.

Suddenly, at roughly three blocks away from downtown, Petunia's nails clawed into his skin.

"Look over there…" she whispered.

An infected blue moose, still very alive, was standing in the middle of the street. It was moving in the same spasmodic fashion as Pop, its hands clawing at virtually nothing as it walked around in circles. It took a moment, but Shifty realized that the moose was the same one who owned his favorite target: jewelry store. In fact, it wasn't all he owned. He seemed to have an infinite number of part-time jobs in town that nobody really decided to question.

Praying that he didn't see them, they ducked behind a parked car. The moose's head looked around wildly, but he didn't make any sudden movements. Practically hyperventilating, Petunia ducked so low to the ground that she could have very well passed as one of the bodies they'd seen.

"What do we do", she hissed.

"We run", he hissed back. "Just follow my league".

He looked at the moose carefully. Thinking back to how Pop's strength had doubled to that of a titan when he had become infected, he realized that there was no way they could fight him. The moose looked roughly twice the height of the bear anyway. Looking into his orange, infected eyes as he hid behind the car, Shifty swore under his breath when he saw that there was no clear path to get away. No allies. Just blocks and blocks of stores and. They would literally have to outrun the creature through the blocks like a maze if they wanted to survive. They needed to make a choice and they needed to make it fast.

_He made it quickly. _

"C'mon", he whispered to Petunia.

Taking the chance, he dashed out from behind the car into the flooded streets. Petunia looked completely flabbergasted for a second, but unwilling to be left alone, she dashed after him with Cub in her arms. The rainwater burned their uncovered legs, and both of them hoped to God that there weren't any cuts on them. The heavy clothing they were wearing only made them run even slower. Feeling like he was wading in acid, Shifty locked eyes on the moose. Cocking its head to the side, it noticed both of them in a second.

_Uh oh…_

Roaring in a nightmarish howl, the monster ran at them with a speed that defied human physics. It seemed to reach its hand out mindlessly, trying to grab something that wasn't even there. Its eyes were unbelievably orange and bloodshot, even worse than Pop's.

"GO!" Petunia shrieked. "GO! GO! GO!"

Cub was sobbing hysterically. If Pop was there he might have known what to do, but unfortunately, he wasn't. It was just them. Just them running away from a blood-thirsty monster. There was the sound of splashing behind them, showing that the creature was advancing faster than ever. The speed that it was spinning its arms looked capable of bashing through bricks. In the very back of his mind, Shifty felt a horrible sense of irony of what would happen if he died on the trek home and his brother was left wondering what the hell happened to him.

To his embarrassment, Petunia was somehow faster than him even while carrying a baby. Passing him as she sprinted as quickly as she could, the raccoon felt a sharp wind fly across his back. The monster was only inches away from him now, and in less than half as second, he was going to end up murdering him.

"_What the hell man",_ he thought_. "Why can't you run? Even she's running faster than you. You've gotten fast from all of that stealing. It's this clothing. That's it. You're going to die because of all of this damn clothing"._

He didn't die. In fact, neither of them did. Not by a long shot. They survived based off pure dumb luck. Rushing into the next block of stores and ignoring the flickering red light, Shifty suddenly heard a loud metal dinging sound. Looking back, he saw that the moose had run directly into a stop sign at such a force with his newfound speed that it had broken apart on him. The metal bar of had imbedded itself into his foot, and he was howling in agony. The sign itself fell down on his neck, looking like it had fatally broken something. He didn't seem to care though. He was still howling and looking at them like how a wolf would like at its prey. Orange blood flew everywhere like the petals of a flower. Now that he had a very clear view of him, he noticed that he was still in his work uniform and his nametag read, "_Lumpy_".

"_ERGGHHH!'_ the monster roared_. "DERGHHH!"_

He didn't look back at the moose and the broken stop sign. Seeing Petunia darting away roughly ten feet in front of him, he pushed himself even faster.

* * *

It wasn't much longer until they reached downtown. The down ridden apartments and gloomy look of the buildings let them know that they had entered. There seemed to be a higher level of activity here. There was screaming coming from every apartment. People in downtown Happy Tree were usually screaming, but at least now they had a reason.

Shifty and Petunia ran down the sidewalk and passed the homes. Feeling his heart beat faster as they got closer and closer to his house, the worst scenarios possible ran through Shifty's mind. He pictured his brother in an alleyway, cut open like a piece of fresh meat, or worse, orange-eyed and looking ready to kill.

"_Please be alive, man", he thought. "C'mon, you can do it…"_

He looked at the numbers on the apartment's mailboxes one by one as they dashed past them. At just a block away, they ran down the alley that connected to his street. Petunia seemed to be at the verge of passing out from running in the heavy clothing, but she seemed a world away to him. All that mattered was getting home and finding out the truth. Turning a sharp corner at the end of the dark alley, he ran o onto his street and saw his home.

And the moment he looked at the stoop of his apartment, he felt like he had just been granted a second life.

Lifty was alive. Bloodied, shaken and looking like he'd just been through hell and back, but alive. He was standing on the porch of their apartment with a baseball bat in his trembling hand. When they reached up the steps, Shifty noticed that he seemed completely oblivious to everything. His eyes were wide and frightened, almost like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Lifty! Are you okay?"

Lifty didn't answer. His entire body was shaking like he was in a catatonic state. Shifty touched his shoulder, but he only seemed vaguely aware that someone else was even there.

"C'mon man", Shifty said. "Answer me…"

"I…I killed him…" his brother finally replied.

"Killed who?"

"Dad", he said. "I…I killed Dad. He walked out into the stairwell where it leaks and the rain got into the cut we gave him when we fought last night. He just started freaking out and making these weird noises. I've never heard anything like them. He grabbed Mom's throat and started choking her. Snapped her neck I think". His lip trembled. "So I slammed the bat into his head…"

Shifty's blood ran cold at the sight of the baseball bat. When the lightning illuminated it, he saw that it was covered in brains and orange blood. Part of him knew that he should have felt something for his parent's death. Part of him just wanted to scream. But he didn't. All he could really feel was a mild sense of dissatisfaction for the people that he'd hardly even known. Still, there was no way not saying that it wasn't an awful feeling. They'd put a roof over his head. It wasn't the safest of roofs, but it was a roof nonetheless. And they had given him the knowledge at an early age that he was going to be the only person that he could really look out for. By doing nothing whatsoever, they'd raised him. But he didn't feel anything for them. He just didn't.

"_I really don't care",_ he realized. _"I really don't care that my own parents are dead…"_

"You didn't get any of the rain on you, did you?" Petunia said suddenly.

"No", Lifty responded. He looked shocked like he'd just really taken insight to the other people on the porch besides his brother. "What is she doing here, Shifty? Why do you have a baby? And what the hell are you guys wearing?"

"It's a long, screwed-up story", Shifty sighed. "I'll explain it all later. Let's get inside".

They walked through the door and up the winding stairwell silently. On the third story, they tried not to look at the body of the middle-aged raccoon with his head bashed in by a baseball bat. They did anyway.


	5. Refugees

**Refugees**

* * *

"I feel like an idiot…"

Lifty grumbled these words ten minutes later as he was forced into the grimy sweatshirt they'd found in their closet. Covered in roughly ten layers of clothes now and hardly able to move, he glared as his brother as he wrapped another layer of duct tape around his head. He was being left with barely enough room to breathe through the layers and layers of it taped over the gash on his face.

"Looking like an idiot is going to save your life", Shifty said as he taped on yet another piece. "just make sure none of that rain gets in there".

They were sitting in their room. Rummaging through the house and findings thousands of knick-knacks he'd stolen throughout the years, Shifty had gotten his hands on a roll of duct tape to bandage his brother's wound from the rain. By the sound of silverware clattering in the drawers, Petunia was inspecting their home in the kitchen. She seemed appalled by the lack of cleanliness and shocked that anyone could actually call the apartment home. In light of what had happened, it gave the raccoon a reason to smile. _Try telling me that family matters now, idiot._

"So what's the story?" Lifty asked.

Shifty tore another role of tape and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Well, what the hell happened? I have about a hundred questions right now and it would help if someone started answering them".

"Shoot", Shifty replied.

"How did you wind up at our doorstep with a baby liked a mom who's giving up her kid?"

"It wasn't my choice to bring it with us, all right?" Shifty snapped. " It's Petunia. She's really into all of that human integrity crap. If it was up to me, I would have left it back there. We just sort of found it".

"It's not an _it_, you know man", Lifty said. "I think it's a boy. Anyway, I don't care that you brought it with you. I may have a sick mind, but I think leaving it there would have been kind of screwed up".

"You should have a conversation with her. You guys would bond pretty well".

"That leads me to my second question", he continued. "Why is Petunia here?"

"I ran into her on the trail in the forest", Shifty said as he taped on another piece. "I mean, I really ran into her. I completely totaled her bike and we kind of just stayed together when the storm hit. What about you?"

"I ran all the way home", Lifty replied. "I got a bad feeling right when the cloud came and I ditched all of the jewelry in an alley. It started raining but I already got inside by the time it really started pouring. All of these people kept knocking at our door screaming, but dad wouldn't let them in. Eventually, he went outside and chased them all away and ended up getting the rain inside him". He paused. "and then it kind of just fell apart from there…"

"It's a pandemic or something", Shifty said. "government testing I think".

Lifty laughed dryly. "Yeah, blame the government. It's always there fault in a time like this, right? I think you're done with the tape by the way. It's weighing my entire head down. Hey, do you know what I realized though?"

Shifty stared. "What?"

"Flaky had a reason to feel weird after all. I guess we should listen to her more".

Sitting up from the bed, Lifty smiled softly and walked out of the room and down the hallway. Following him, part of Shifty wondered what had happened to his mom's body if she had really died, but then decided that it was best not to ask. Reaching the kitchen, they found Petunia pacing around and eyeing everything with a completely horrified look on her face. She was holding Cub in her arms.

"There's rats everywhere", she said in disgust. "and it smells like something died in here. And I swear, I think mold growing on those dishes over there".

"You're right", Lifty said with a grin. "but it's our home".

Glaring at him, Petunia rolled her eyes and walked to the other side of the kitchen. She placed Cub down on the dirty table, dusting it off as best as she could beforehand.

"So let's get to the bottom line here", Lifty said. "We're screwed right?"

"Well, we don't know that yet", Shifty said. "We might as well just stay here and-

"We're screwed", Lifty cut in. "No matter what choice we take, we're screwed. This is a bad situation and we ended up at the

Shocked with how his lackey brother had suddenly taken charge, Shifty watched as Lifty marched around the kitchen lecturing to them like a drill sergeant. If it wasn't for the clothes and duct tape completely covering him, he may have even looked intimidating.

"The rain cloud's moving", Lifty said. "Soon enough, it won't be raining here anymore. It'll move out of the area and the storm will go somewhere else. So we have two choices. We can head in the direction of the storm and try to beat its speed. Or we can go south and go through all of the towns that the rain already hit.

"But then everyone's infected", Petunia noted. "What good will that do?"

"Yeah. Not much of a choice, is it? And then there's the third option".

She stared. "What?"

"We stay here".

The mood in the kitchen became unbelievably tense. Petunia stood against the wall looking like she was about to make the most important decision of her life. As it would turn out, she was. Shifty drummed his fingers against the counter, sizing up the pros and cons of the whole thing. For almost half a minute there was only complete silence punctured by the lightning outside. But then…

"I say we get out", Petunia said finally.

"Me too", Shifty said. "Staying here isn't going to do anything if more people get infected. We have to get out of town".

"So it's settled", Lifty said. "Let's get the hell out of here".

* * *

Setting outside into downtown Happy Tree for the very last time in their lives, the three descended down the steps of the apartment complex. Cub's naps had become less and less frequent to the point where he obviously wasn't going to go to sleep. His screaming and crying was hurting all of their ears.

"Can't you shut that kid up?" Shifty roared as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.

"It's not like I'm not trying!" Petunia cried as she rocked him in her arms. "He's just a baby!

"A baby that you had the nerve to take with us!" Shifty shot back. "we could have just left it at the hut and made the whole journey here a lot easier".

Her eyes were furious. "And leave it to die, huh? Just forget about and hope for the best like a complete asshole?"

"Out of sight, out of mind", Shifty said simply. "If we let if there I wouldn't have had a second thought about it!"

"Both of you shut up!" Lifty growled. "This isn't getting us anywhere!"

They walked in silence down the street in their arctic rain gear and duct tape. The streets practically glowed orange from the rain's heat evaporating upwards. Part of it looked like an abstract painting, but unfortunately, the other part looked like real life. It didn't make any sense to any of them, but what was going on was actually happening.

"So is it north or south then?" Petunia asked softly.

"Either way it's not good", Lifty said. "we might as well just flip a coin and go with it".

"There's got to be other survivors though", she said. "Maybe they're all hiding like we were. They probably had the sense not to go outside".

"But then how do we round them up?" Lifty asked. "Do we just get a megaphone and yell into it until we have an assembly going?"

"No", Shifty cut in as they started to walk down the alleyway. "That will get us killed. We need to find a better way to get everyone who's not infected into one place. Spread the word somehow. What do you think, Petunia?"

"I-

The skunk stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what was in the center of the alley. She nearly let the baby fall to the ground. Her jaw dropped. In just a second, both of the raccoons followed suit.

There seemed to be over twenty infected creatures on the pile of garbage in the center of the alley. Standing together like silhouettes in the darkness, they stared down at all of them like mindless zombies. Shifty, Lifty and Petunia all backed up with awestruck faces, but this only seemed to make it even worse. The creatures slowly began to amble down from the heap of debris, descending down on them like vultures. Some looked newly infected, only a hint of orange in their eyes, but others looked like they'd been the very first to go. Their eyes looked like bloody-citrus, whirring back and forth like marbles as they locked on them.

One by one they jumped down from the garbage. One hit the ground hard and seemed to break its ankle. It didn't care either. Ambling along with the rest of them, it continued to climb down from the garbage and walk toward them with a blood-thirsty grin on its face.

"We have to go…" Petunia muttered. "We have to…"

"No…" Shifty said. His eyes were terrified. "They'll catch us in a second…"

But before the monsters could descend on them there was a strange whirring sound in the distance. Almost like a metallic hum you would hear from a motorboat. It grew closer and closer at every second. There was the sound of screeching tires doing a sharp turn, followed by a dull thud like a vehicle going over a bump. All of the creatures suddenly started to howl as car headlights flickered on them from behind.

Flying out onto into the alley from the rain's mist, a gray van made a screeching sound as it spit mud out from under its wheels. With all of escapees to shocked to do anything, they watched as it dented itself against the building before pulling back to face them. Now that they had a good look at it, it really didn't look a van at all. It reminded them of the military tanks in history book photographs of Veitnam. As the van screeched to a halt, the window began to roll down. A green bear wearing camouflage was in the driver's seat.

"GET IN!" he barked.

Getting an old feeling of déjà vu, Shifty hurried toward the van with the others on each side of him. Cub was sobbing in Petunia's arms, but telling by the look on her face, she wasn't about to rock him to sleep again. Lifty was bolting to the van like he'd just been granted a second life. The back door was kicked open just as another bolt of lightning rocked the earth. Before they even piled in, the van revved its engine and knocked them senselessly. Speeding forward, it obliterated the pile of debris the infected were standing on and sent the debris and creatures in every direction. And then it drove onward.

* * *

There wasn't any rain in the van. It was a strange, simple thought, but it was their first relief the moment they entered. As whoever had piled in behind him slammed the door shut, Shifty glanced around quickly at his new surroundings. The van looked smaller to him than it had looked at first glance from outside. It indeed looked like it had been used for war at some point, but it looked more like a compacted school bus than anything else. There was the fresh smell of new car inside like somebody took the time to polish it every day.

"Put the kid in the back", the bear in the camouflage ordered Petunia. Nodding, she complied and scurried to the backseat with Cub still nursed in her arms. The moment he did, Shifty noticed something that should have shocked him from the very moment he entered: there were a few familiar faces.

The back of the van was decided into two seats of three like some kind of half-bobsled. Sitting in the front, side-by-side, were Cuddles and Giggles. Looking completely shell-shocked, the chipmunk was resting her head against the window and gazing out at the rain like she'd just seen death. Her lip kept trembling, not forming any coherent words, and all in all, she looked terrified out of her mind. That couldn't be said for her friend though. Cuddles's expression was indifferent as he stared down at the vehicle's floor.

Sitting at the very edge of the seat behind the two was Flaky. The porcupine always tended to look nervous, but after the rain had hit, she looked like she was going to jump out of her skin at any minute. Just the sound of the car door slamming shut had seemed to have scared the life out of her. Petunia had piled in beside her holding Cub, not bearing a much different look than she had back at Pop's house. More than anything else though, she just looked confused. Sitting in the window-seat next to her was Nutty. The moment he realized Shifty was staring at him, he glared up at him.

"I found my bike, you know!"

Not willing to argue with him, Shifty turned around and prepared to take the one free seat beside Cuddles and Giggles. Turning back though, he found that his brother was now sitting there carefully peeling off the duct tape over his wound. Craning his neck out into the van's aisle, the bear in the driver's seat grinned at him

"Looks like you get to ride shotgun", he said.

Feeling nervous for no good reason, he ambled to the front to the passenger seat. Sitting down, he glanced over at the bear and got a good look at him. Light-green with military badges all over him, he looked like a drill sergeant out of a stereotype catalogue

"You look pretty shaken up", the bear said.

"You really don't know the half of it", Shifty sighed.

"I know more than you think. You live in one of the apartments at 453 Birch Street".

Shifty stared. "How the hell did you know that?"

"I'll give you a hint", the bear said. "We're neighbors. You and your brother tried to break into my house last Christmas".

It dawned on him immeadidly. It was the bear that lived next door to him. The one that was the urban legend of his entire apartment complex because of his hallucinations from Veitnam and his habit to shelter himself from the outside world like a hermit. Shifty gazed at his face for a second, trying to see if there any signs of he was truly a maniac like everyone said. The bear seemed to notice.

"I'm not going to kill you", he said. "I'm not going to be the bad guy here unless I have to". He held out his hand, not looking away from the wheel. "I'm Flippy".

"I'm Shifty".

They shook hands. Everyone in the back of the van seemed to be watching them. By the look of it, everyone that the bear had saved had been just as scared of him as they were of the pandemic going on outside. Someone actually shaking his hand seemed to make them all relax a little. Peeling off the first layer of duct tape wrapped around him and looking back, Shifty realized that there was something wrong with the head count in the van. Somebody was missing. Somebody that was never seen without the others.

He asked the honest question. "Where's Toothy?"

"We couldn't find him", Cuddles said shortly. "He got lost…"

The silence in the van was almost deafening. Lightning flashed outside, almost giving the illusion that every one of the car's windows was going to crack from the sound. In the distance, somebody screamed. Nobody said anything for a moment. Then, of all people, Flaky spoke quietly from the back.

"So", she said. "What happens now?"

"I don't know", Flippy replied silently. "but for now we're refugees".


	6. Northbound

**Northbound**

* * *

It took the skunk a moment to get a sense of her surroundings. She was barely conscious of the fact that the repetitive clattering sound of the rain hitting the road outside had ended. She remembered it as being a downpour, but somehow, it had mellowed out into mild thunder. The second thing she became aware of was her migraine. It made her feel like she'd been held upside-down for a week.

As she woke up from her short sleep in the backseat, it all came rushing back to Petunia. She was in a van. The same van that she'd gotten into after that damn storm hit. Cub was resting in her lap. After the hours of bawling that had made her want to claw her eyes out, he'd finally gone to sleep again. _Poor guy..._

Petunia cringed at her headache. She was also suddenly conscious of the fact that she'd been sleeping on someone's shoulder. Gazing over, she saw that Flaky was out like a light in the seat beside her. For someone that always seemed so anxious, she seemed to be sleeping rather peacefully despite what had happened. On the other side of the porcupine was Nutty. Resting his head against the window, the squirrel had a thin line of drool on his cheek and kept twitching in his sleep. It struck her oddly that he was smiling.

"_Maybe he has the right idea…",_ Petunia thought numbly. _"Just try and ignore everything and smile…how long were we asleep anyway?"_

She looked to the seat in front of her. Everyone else looked like they'd dosed off awhile. They were all either leaning against each other or slumped over in their seats, bumping up and down with the rhythm of the car. She only half-realized that there didn't seem to be the downpour of rain hitting the window again. It had seemed to have stopped.

"I'm glad you're awake", a familiar voice said. "I've been up for hours….

Raising up her head with difficulty, Petunia smiled at the one person that made it so she wasn't in a van full of strangers. Giggles had been a good friend for as long as she could remember. For most of their childhood, it had been hard for anyone wandering around town to not see them together. Their pastimes had mostly been things that all girly-girls could relate to like building lemonade stands or playing dolls. Sure, mild bumps had come up here and there. One of the most prominent had been how much of a ditz Giggles was. In short though, they were best friends. And even though they had grown older, nothing had severed the close bond they'd had throughout the years.

Petunia smiled. "Glad to see you, Giggles…"

"Wish I could say the same. I don't know how all of you can just fall asleep like that". She nudged Cuddles sitting next to her and didn't get much of a response. "It's weird. Some people can just fall asleep if the world is ending. If there's just an ordinary thunderstorm outside I'm under the covers crying…"

"I remember", Petunia said with a smile.

She was talking of course of the infamous slumber party they'd had in seventh grade. Having been planned weeks in advanced, what seemed like half of the girls in school had arrived at Petunia's house that night with sleeping bags. There'd been an enormous thunderstorm outside, apparently one of the worst in twenty years, but it hadn't stopped the girls from having fun. They'd been playing truth or dare and it was Giggles's turn. With a smile on her face, one of the girls had dared her to walk outside on the deck and stand in the storm for a whole minute. It was relatively safe, especially since there was an entire roof covering the patio. But the fear was much more present for someone who had an intense fear of storms. Giggles had fainted when she saw the lightning and banged her head pretty hard on the deck, resulting in the slumber party being relocated to the hospital's waiting room.

"I still have the stitches", Giggles said. "one hell of a night, wasn't it?'

"Sure was", Petunia replied. "those are all memories now though…"

"Don't say that", Giggles said with a shudder. "Just don't say that…"

Petunia raised an eyebrow. "What? The fact that there's a full-scale apocalypse going on outside? There's no way you can really be denying that this is happening…"

"I've been denying this since it started, alright? I just want to wake up from this nightmare and forget everything. But I can't go to sleep in the first place, so either way I'm dead. Just like everyone back there…"

"What?" Petunia asked.

Giggles stared. "Well, haven't you looked outside?"

Rubbing her eyes, the skunk shifted in her seat and peered out the window. Almost instantly, she was jolted awake by the sight she saw. Their town was only a faint shape on the horizon, billowing out orange mist like a smokestack. Hints of lightning flashed like snap-shots above the clouds. By the look of it, their van had been able to pass the speed that the cloud. And by the look of it, it was going to end up catching up. _Great, just great…._

"That's awful", Petunia sighed as she lay back against her seat. "It's so awful…"

"And it's not just awful", Giggles said. "it's our home. Or at least it was…"

"Do you think we're the only ones that got out though? I mean, we're the only city for about ten miles. People had to have gotten out".

"I saw some people on the side of the road", Giggles replied. "Most of them were infected. Just sort of wandering around. The only one I saw that was alive was this squirrel running with a garbage bag over his shoulder or something".

"That just goes to show you", Petunia said. "We have no clue what's really going on out there. How the hell did you get roped into this mess anyway?"

Giggles smirked. "You have him to thank for that". She nudged the sleeping, yellow rabbit beside her. "He had this plan to go skating to the beach down south with everyone. One of Toothy's wheels were broken but that didn't stop Cuddles here. He dragged us to the bus station and pretty much forced us onto the next ride with this big grin on his face. He just doesn't get it. He thinks everything is just one big adventure. Even if someone died, I think he would just keep on smiling like it's all for fun and games. And then it started to rain halfway there…. If it hadn't been for the van driving by, we probably would have ended up dying out on the highway". She paused for a second. "and that's when we lost Toothy".

"And Nutty?"

"No clue on that one", she said. "Nutty was here when we got in. But none of that matters. You didn't even let me get to the real question here".

"What's that?" Petunia asked

"Why the hell did you end up wandering onto this bus with two kleptos and a baby?"

"Shifty's not a klepto", Petunia said sharply. "and there's no way in hell I would leave a baby behind in a time like this".

"Of course you wouldn't!" Giggles said with wide eyes. "that's just sick! I would have taken it too! But you have to admit that it's kind of weird how you showed up here. I just didn't expect to see you climbing in here with Lifty and Shifty. I mean, of all people, they just don't seem like the ones that you would want to trus-

"I'm awake, y'know", a new voice cut in.

The girls both turned to see Lifty awake on the other side of Cuddles. Pieces of duct tape were still clinging to his fur. His eyes were bloodshot and tired, and by the look of it, he hadn't slept much either. This made it unclear to the two girls just how long he'd been listening to them.

"Look…" Giggles began. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean anythi-

"Whatever", the raccoon sighed. "It doesn't matter. What time is it?"

Before either of the girls could answer, another new voice did it for them. This time from the very front of the van. "5:47".

The three conscious refugees had almost completely forgotten about the bear that was driving the van. Not even turning around to look at them, they still had the feeling that Flippy was relatively unfazed by the situation. He just kept staring forward at the road with wild eyes, almost like a light at the end of the tunnel.

"How's everyone holding up back there?" he called.

"Could be better", Petunia replied.

"Likewise", Flippy said. "Anyway, I'm going to stop the car in a few minutes. There's some things that I have to talk to you guys about. Do me a favor and wake everyone else up.

* * *

Ten minutes after Petunia woke up in the backseat, Shifty awoke in the front. For a moment he was completely oblivious that he was in a car, nonetheless alive, but then it all came rushing back to him. The rain, the running, the dying. It had been bad, and by the feel of it, it wasn't going to get much better. Awaking with bad omens usually wasn't a good sign. He was so confused that it took a moment to be conscious of someone nudging him in the shoulder.

"Flaky?"

The red porcupine was standing outside the open passenger door and shaking him in the shoulder. She kept looking around nervously for some reason, almost like she was committing a deadly crime. The strange silence in the air outside told him that it was no longer raining. _Yeah, it's definite. Things are going to get bad…_

"What the hell is going on?" he groaned. "where…where are we?'

"Flippy stopped the van", Flaky said. "He wants to have some kind of meeting. Everyone else is outside".

As she walked away, the raccoon stretched in his seat and took a good look outside. They'd stopped the van in what looked like a few acres of deserted, brown farmland. A small barn with a silo was off in the distance with a twittering windmill spinning like clockwork. A city kid practically from birth, the idea of a place like it was almost eerie for Shifty. He shivered as he stepped outside onto the soil.

"Why isn't it raining anymore?" Shifty called.

"No idea", Flaky said. "Do…do you think that there's any sinkholes around here though? I heard that there's always sinkholes at farms because of the climate. We should watch our steps. It might be dangerous. I…

Knowing well enough to turn the sound of Flaky's voice off, Shifty shook his head and walked across the farm. They passed several orchards of pumpkins and radishes. One had a ghostly-looking scarecrow in it that looked practically pecked to death by birds. By the look of the ruined crops, it hadn't done much of a job protecting the vegetables. Walking onward, they finally caught sight of the others. They were all cluttered around the barn in a tight crowd. For some reason, they all seemed to be staring upward. As he walked closer, Shifty realized why. Flippy was standing at the very top of the barn's metal silo with a rifle in his hand. Considering how everyone was staring fixated at it, it seemed like a decent way to keep hold of everyone's attention.

"_They don't know they can trust him though…"_ he thought irritably. _"What's stopping someone like him from getting on top of a silo like that and shooting us down one by one?"_

He lined up next to his brother. He leaned over in an attempt to ask him how long they'd been asleep, but his efforts were quickly silenced by a loud metallic clang. Startled, everyone gazed up high to see Flippy on the silo like a mighty altar. The harsh ringing in their ears told anyone who hadn't seen it that he'd banged his rifle against the structure to get their attention. The meeting was on.

"I'll be the first to say that I have no clue what's going on", his loud voice echoed. "and I'm pretty sure that none of you do eit-

"Then you probably shouldn't be up there", a voice cut in.

Everyone turned to Nutty. Spending most of the time after leaving the city complaining about being hungry and twitching nervously, nobody had really expected him to have any real thoughts of his own. But apparently he did. Probably from the lack of sugar in the last few hours, his twitching had died out considerably and left him with tired, angry eyes that were gazing up at the silo.

"Because you have those stupid badges?" he continued. "Because you've been in the war? How does any of that matter now? I'm dead! We're all dead! I'd have better luck walking into a shooting gallery than following you!"

"Then why don't you just leave then?" Flippy asked. "it's not like anyone's going to stop you".

Nutty had nothing to say to this. He now seemed to be aware that everyone was staring at him. Sulking, and looking embarrassed, he stared down at the ground.

"Like I was saying", Flippy continued. "we're in a pretty big dilemma here. We can go north and south and we don't know where we're going to end up either way. It's like flipping a coin, so right now, we have a fifty-fifty shot at getting out of here. Our game plan is simple. My van can drive faster than the storm can travel. We keep running and we camp out until we have to keep moving. The moment we hear thunder, we get out".

"But that's just running", Cuddles protested. "it's not going to solve anything".

"This isn't an adventure. This is survival. And sometimes running is the only choice we have. Now, onto my second point. Even though the storm's behind us now, there's no telling how far the infected have wandered. Judging by what I've seen of them, they go after flesh. And they'll be following us in no time. It's just miles of countryside out here and they can be hiding anywhere. And to top all of that off, the storm might circle back. So that's why I hope you all know how to use one of these".

Flippy held out the rifle horizontally above the crowd. A few of them shuddered but most didn't look too shocked. They had all seen this coming.

"To cock it, the handle's gotta be pulled back to the rear as far as it will go and then released. If a charged magazine is in the gun, it's gonna' chamber the first round", the bear said. "I'll explain exactly how to do it later when I hand them out. Now, are there any questions?"

"What about food and ammo?" Lifty asked. "we're going to run out eventually".

"I have enough food and ammunition in here to last an apocalypse", Flippy said. "I stocked up like a bomb shelter after Veitnam. You never really know when the world's going to end. Everything' s in there. Canned vegetables, crates of bullets, frozen meat. It's all piled in the trunk. Hell's gonna' freeze over by the time we run out".

"We can't keep running forever though", Shifty called out. "it's suicide. Eventually the rain's just going to catch us into a corner and get us".

"And that's when we'll have a plan", Flippy explained. "We're ahead of it right now with a pretty good distance. You could take that figuratively too. We have the upper hand right now. We have the first move. As long as we play are cards right from here on out, _we_ can all end up making it".

He paused for a second. For an odd moment it looked like nobody knew what was going to happen next. It was an unpredictable moment where they realized that they were putting their lives in the hand of someone they didn't know. He may have been a leader, he that was only judging by what he'd said so far. He had nothing besides badges to back up his points. However, taking in a deep sigh, Flippy continued to speak.

"And I stress the _we_ part", he continued. "Every single person here is in it together from here on out. I'm not going to say any of you have to like eachother, because I'm sure there's at least one person here who you'd want to leave behind right now. But you have to look out for eachother. We're a family now. We might not be the most functional one, but we're a famil-

There was a rumble of thunder that suddenly interrupted his speech. All seven of them turned to see the hint of an orange cloud billowing on the horizon. It didn't take a second thought for them to all realize that they had to leave as soon as possible.

"So is everyone in?" Flippy asked quickly.

The silence in the clearing was almost deafening. Everyone seemed to feel too awkward to say anything. Then, taking in a deep breath, someone finally spoke.

"I don't know if we're going to have a happy ending", Petunia said suddenly. "but I'll come along for the ride anyway".

"Same here", Giggles said. "no matter what happens, we're all in this together".

"And you're not leaving me behind", Cuddles said. "I'm coming with you".

So one by one, the six refugees that had survived the pandemic pledged their trust. Although a few of them were less than willing to do so, they all eventually showed some sign of believing in Flippy's words. There was even a brief moment where almost all of them smiled. But after that, nothing else needed to be said. With the sound of rapidly approaching thunder booming in the air again, the meeting ended abruptly when they all hurried back to the car. Flippy scurried down the silo's ladder with the rifle tucked under his arm. Within the next second they had all piled into the car, and the second after that, they were off.

* * *

True to Flaky's words, things would be changing. It wouldn't be long either. There wasn't one occupant in the van who would end up questioning everything they had ever believed in. Not just the nature of the mind, but the entire structure that determined how far it could go before collapsing. The peak of sanity. The breaking point. Nevertheless, they sped down the dirt road away from the eye of the storm. And if they were aware of the horrors they were going to face, they might have just let the rain catch up with them.

* * *

**A/N: I know some characters may not have gotten as much screen time as others, but trust me when I say that everyone will get their moment to shine. Some will have a longer moment then others but everyone is going to be important. I'm sorry how long this chapter took to come out, but the first time I finished it, I accidentally deleted the document and had to start over again. The chapters will be updated at a much quicker pace now.**


	7. Southbound

**Southbound**

* * *

Petunia had been correct in predicting that they weren't the only band of escapees. While it may have been true that a great population of Happy Tree had been killed or infected by the rain, a good deal of survivors had emerged out of the chaos. Some had become storm chasers and gone north, some had taken shelter, and others had just blindly wandered with no real sense of direction. Everyone wanted to survive, but in the end, nobody really had any sense of how to go about doing it. And only one group had gone south.

* * *

The beaver sat in the hull of the ship and felt like throwing up. It wasn't because of seasickness either. The photograph in his hands was almost too much to take in at once. He'd done his best to protect it from the rain but the ink was already beginning to fade. Along with that, his trembling hands felt like they were going to tear it apart at any second.

The photo wasn't that old, but because of errors in developing, it was black and white. It had been last Fourth of July at the park. Silhouetted by the fireworks exploding in the night, they were all in the center of the frame with their arms around each other. But that was all gone now. _But that's all over Cuddles. Giggles. Flaky. They're as good as dead, man…_

Grimacing and turning the photo over in his lap, Toothy sighed. The last few hours were even harder to take in than the picture itself. Without warning, what had once been a casual day out with his friends had turned into a nightmare. With their bus speeding down the highway and heading to the beach, they had hardly even had time to see the storm coming. The world and roadway had both spun in a flash of orange as a downpour of rain came down. The bus had crashed through the guardrails and flipped over. Rather banged up but thankfully not bleeding, he'd watched in horror as the windows exploding inward and sent glass shards everywhere. It had turned into one hell of a day.

And in the end, despite everything that had happened, he blamed Cuddles. It was his fault that they'd decided to go on the highway. It was his fault they'd decided to go to the beach. And, although unrelated to their predicament, it was his fault Toothy always felt like an outcast. All throughout his life, the beaver had always felt tacked onto other people's lives like a prop. He wasn't particularly good at anything so he just tended to follow his friend's shadows until it made him look good. There were times when he'd felt spiteful of other people, especially Cuddles, but eventually, these thoughts had soothed out when he realized that he should have been thankful to even have friends in the first place. Still, there was always the truth. In everyone's eyes, Toothy knew he was just a face without a personality in the background. People didn't even take the time to get to know him because they didn't find him interesting. _You can't blame your friend for that though. It's your fault. Not you're alone because you were too scared to follow the people that care about…_

The bus crash had been disorienting. Crawling out of the rubble and onto the highway, Toothy had panicked when he saw the chaos around him. His survival instincts kicking in, he'd made a run for it on the spot, forgetting that his friends had even been with him. He hadn't stopped running either. Feeling like he was at the verge of a heart attack, he'd run all the way back into town and zigzagged through the streets without any real sense of direction. Every alleyway seemed out to get him. It wasn't until he was passing the docks on the south side of town that something eventful happened. Almost considering giving up and just jumping off the dock, he'd almost jumped out of his skin when he'd been confronted by a figure standing outside one of the boardwalk shacks. One thing had led to another, and in just a few hours, he had taken refuge in a fishing boat with a band of survivors and set sail. _You're a great friend, asshole. You abandon your friends just so you can save your own hide…_

"How are you holding up?'

Startled, he glanced up from the photograph to see another beaver walking toward him. Orange with a construction helmet, he was the oldest passenger on the ship next to their captain. As he sat down on the bench next to him, Toothy instantly noticed something odd: he didn't have any arms.

"How are you holding up?" the beaver asked again.

"Fine", Toothy replied. He tried to stop staring at his amputated limbs. "I'm doing the best I can anyway…"

"That's the spirit", the beaver replied. "It's good to see some hope in here. No one else really looks like they're going to jump for joy…"

At the mention of the others, Toothy took a look around the cabin of the boat again. It was a long, sawdust-smelling room with several benches parted into a rectangle. It seemed to rock back and forth with the waves outside. Glancing over at the bench farthest away from him, he spotted a blue anteater quite focused on a pocket video game Although he vaguely remembered him from school, he had never really gotten to know him. He seemed like too much of a dork than Toothy usually liked in a person. He was pretty sure his name was Sniffles. Opposite from the anteater's bench was a creepy-looking deer with rosy cheeks and face paint. With the suitable name of Mime, it now occurred to him that the deer had never spoken a word since they'd boarded the ship. In fact, he'd never spoken a word in school either. _And the only one left in the boat's the captain…_

Looking back at his seatmate with no arms, Toothy fell slightly frightened when he realized that he was studying him closely. Acting on first instinct, he nervously slid away. He was surprised when he saw the orange beaver smile.

"Sorry if I creeped you out a little", he said. "I can do that sometimes. Bad habit. Sometimes I just stare at people and don't realize it". After an awkward silence, he smiled again. "I'm Handy".

"I'm Toothy".

Handy nodded and fumbled with the grocery bag around his neck. It looked like he was trying to take it off but it was proving difficult without any limbs. For a second Toothy reached out to help him, but before he could, the crippled beaver managed to shake it off and place it beside him on the bench. It looked like he'd grown used to doing things without his hands. It only made Toothy wonder exactly how he'd lost them in the first place…

"You're lucky you're a kid", Handy said suddenly.

Toothy raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"When you're a kid you have people looking out for you in times like this. Nobody wants to see you get hurt. For the rest of this little adventure, you're going to have people protecting you because they think you're weak too deal. Everyone's going to expect me to be one of them just because I'm an adult. When you're older, things are different. Everyone wants you to give your life in a disaster and die a hero. That's not what I want".

"Really?" Toothy said. "What do you want then?"

"What do you think?" Handy said. "I don't want to die. Especially just because someone thinks it's right to sacrifice yourself for someone else. I mean, if you were hurt and bleeding on the ground, I'd do all I could to save you. But if the time came where I was risking my life, I'd clear out. I'd feel guilty, but I'd clear out in a second. Forget glory. The last thing I want out here is to be out here is a hero who goes down like an idiot".

"I can fight for myself though", Toothy said with a glare. "You don't have to think like that…"

"Hey, I didn't mean that man", Handy said innocently. "I just meant that I'm expected to watch out for everyone out here just because I'm a few years older. If there's a massacre somewhere down the line, I'm going to end up being the human shield". Finishing his grim statement, he bent down with his stubs and reached into the plastic bag at his feet. It took a few minutes of fumbling with his elbows, but he eventually managed to retrieve two foil-wrapped cheeseburgers.

"Hungry?" he asked. "I raided Happy Burger when everyone else cleared out. I thought it would help down the road".

"Thanks", Toothy said. Glancing at his stubs, he couldn't help but finally ask. "What happened to your arms?"

Handy glared. "What happened to your teeth?"

Toothy grinned. "Fair enough"

Reaching out and accepting a burger, Toothy wrapped the foil off the cold burger and took a bite. It was better if he just calmed down – maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed.

* * *

The captain sat on the deck above the others. Staring out at the open sea from his chair, he watched the citrus clouds vanish in the sky and percolate into the eye of the storm hundreds of miles away. The ocean was now an acidic-looking orange from whatever had been in the rain. Steam rose from it like boiling water, almost daring him to lean out just far enough so it could engulf him completely_. That's just what it wants, isn't it?_

Russell sighed as he spun the mighty wheel around. It had definitely been the right idea to go south. It only took common sense to figure out that going north and racing against the storm was a bad idea. It was just a game of life or death. If you slowed down too much and too often, the rain would get you in an instant and you would die thinking of what a stupid mistake you made. Sure, there was easily a great amount of infected where the storm had already passed through, but they were in the water. As far as he was concerned, water meant safety.

Russell forced himself to smile as he glanced out at the ocean. As far as he could remember, the sea had always been his best friend. Born into a family of fisherman, it only seemed natural to him that he would grow up and carry on the family business. Always looking for an adventure, his room as a child had been filled with pirate memorabilia and models of ships. The ocean had always given him a close sense of belonging. After all, he'd always viewed the real world as a crazy, hectic place where things were complicated. There wasn't anything complicated about the open sea. _The smell of salt brine. The thrill of adventure. Everything's always been perfect…_

So he'd grown up and bought a boat of his own. It seemed like the best option. Starting a family had never really been his thing. He'd always been a loner who just enjoyed the simpler things in life. Along with that, he was a risk-taker. There were times on his adventures out to sea where he'd nearly been killed. He'd lost an arm to a shark, an eye in a freak fishing-hook accident, and a leg to a poisonous jellyfish that had given him such a fever that he'd nearly died. But always a survivor, he'd pulled through.

But that changed now. Glancing out at the once beautiful sea that had turned that disgusting color, he couldn't help but question his beliefs now. If the sea had turned on him, what was saying the rest of the world wouldn't? _What's saying the very group you formed won't?_

He quickly shook the thought out of his head. Why was he scared of the very people he had rallied together? After all, half of them were just kids. Russell had luckily been docked when the storm had arrived. Selling his catches on the dock, he'd watch in a mix of confusion and horror as acidic rain had started to pour from the sky. Running around frantically, he'd saved as many people as he could. It only seemed the right thing to do. He'd found Handy polishing someone's boat, Sniffles doing some kind of experiment on the beach with tide pools, Mime just running by, and Toothy fleeing for his life. In total, they were five. That was a good number. A solid one. All he had to do was keep them safe for as long as he could. In his mind, that was exactly what a captain was meant to do.

"_That can't go on forever though",_ Russell thought. _"you're going to have to stop eventually…"_

But there was no time to think of things like that. Glancing out at the sea, Russell felt satisfied that he'd reached their destination. It looked just like he remembered it. Cruising the boat into the port, he hopped out of his chair and did the practiced action of throwing the anchor into the water. He could have thrown in the iron one he'd bought recently, but he wasn't ready to get it dirty yet. Then, rubbing his hands together, he walked toward the hatch to the hull and opened it up for the others. At the same time, he was completely oblivious to the fact that things were about to get very, very bad.

* * *

"Avast ye!"

Slightly startled, Handy looked up to see the hatch on the ceiling open up. Sunlight streamed into the cabin, cascading off every nook and cranny and nearly blinded everyone. After a moment of squinting his eyes, he was able to see Russell poking his head through with a bright smile on his face.

"Time to get up", Russell said. "we're here".

"Where's here?" Sniffles called out. "I'll get out the moment you tell us where we are".

"If it's any consolation, we're safe for now", Russell responded. He smiled and fully displayed his yellowed, pirate teeth. "let's get out of here".

As he stepped away from the hatch and back out onto the deck, a grim silence followed in the cabin where everyone considered if following the otter was really the right choice. Shaking his head, Handy hooked the grocery bag into his mouth and swung it back around his neck. Hopping up from the bench, he walked to the hatch and started to climb up the ladder. For most people without arms this would have been arduous, but he'd had almost a lifetime of practice to deal with those kinds of things. Life as a cripple had been rough for as long as he could remember, but like everything else, he'd pulled through. Feeling Mime close in behind him, Handy breathed in fresh air as he stepped out onto the deck. Every part of the white boat was polished so much that the shine hurt his eyes. _Someone treats this thing like it's their own child..._

"Take a look around", Russell's voice said from behind him. "I think you'll like it..."

Gazing out at the mainland, Handy was greeted by an odd sight. It seemed to be somewhat of a half-island in the middle of the water with hundreds of ruined canoes cluttering the shore. There were several metal bunkers sloped around it in a semi-circle. It looked like all of the trash that had been washed out to sea had ended up there.

"Where are we?" Handy asked.

"My secret island", Russell said. "I used to come here all the time when I was a kid. It was a great place to go fishing. I think it was a military station once or something. They must have used all of those bunkers".

"This doesn't strike you as a bad idea though?" Handy said.

Russell raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"We're on a little island in the middle of nowhere. It's not exactly the best place to be in case something goes wrong".

"Everything's gone wrong already", Russell said. "and the farther we are from civilization the better."

For a second Handy felt the compulsion to keep arguing, but the otter merely turned his back to face the water with that big grin still on his face. More than a little frustrated with the way things were turning out, he gazed back at the ladder. Everyone else was slowly scaling their way up. Surveying the three of them, Handy couldn't help but feel a little downcast. None of them really looked like they had the endurance or courage to last as long as they needed to. Toothy had looked shell-shocked since they'd picked him up, Sniffles looked like he was about to collapse at any second and Mime just seemed spaced-out in general. _We're all cannon fodder out here, aren't we?_

"What time is it?" Toothy groaned.

"6:15", Sniffles said instantly. "it's going to get dark really soon…"

Toothy gave him a confused look. "How the hell do you know that? You don't even have a watch".

"It's the sun", Sniffles said blankly. "if you look at the shadows you can figure it out. I went to a science camp last summer to look good for college and they taught us how to do it. It's really easy math if you spend a few weeks learning the techniq-

"And a summer well spent", Toothy said sarcastically. "The girls at the camp were probably all over you".

Sniffles glared for a second before returning to his handheld video game. At this moment, whatever strange level of nirvana that Russell had achieved by staring out into the sea ended. His one working eye shrinking like a pinhole camera, he turned back to them with a cordial smile on his face. Surveying the otter up and down, Handy couldn't help but shudder. _This guy is going to get us all killed…_

"So", Russell said. "Here we are then. All ashore".

"All ashore?" Toothy said. "that's really all you can say after all of this?"

"If I was the type for a speech about sticking together and self-dignity I'd dish one out in a second", Russell said. "but in a shocking turn of events, I'm not. I probably know as much about what's going on as you do so I'm not going to lie and tell you I'm some kind of god".

"I could probably figure it out", Sniffles said suddenly.

Everyone turned to him. For a second the anteater looked positively frightened that there was suddenly so much focus on him, but he seemed to adjust under the limelight. He spoke without making eye contact with any of them.

"I could, um, probably figure out what's in the rain if you give me a few tools and some time. I know it might not be much but it'll help to know what we're up against".

"It's not worth it", Toothy said quickly. "Who cares what's in it? It's going to kill us and that's all that matters. This is an...what's that word for it...an _apocalypse_ or something! We just have to keep moving".

"I like what he's saying", Handy cut in. "we might as well put up a fight if we have the chance. And if he says he has a shot at figuring it out, he has a shot".

"A shot's only a shot", Toothy said coldly. "you don't know how far it'll go".

"And that's a chance we're willing to take", Russell concluded. "We're making our way through this mess hell or high water. Troops ashore!"

Without another word to the group, the sea otter turned around and began to walk confidently toward the anchored drawbridge. There was a scramble among them as they all hurried after, lining up and descending down the long plank and onto the dock. The entire boat swayed like a full-scale ocean liner just from the impact of them stepping off. Glancing out across the dock and onto the small island littered with bunkers, Handy couldn't help but shiver. _Something really isn't right here..._

"This place gives me the creeps…" he whispered to the deer walking beside him.

Mime merely gave him an inquisitive look that formed into a smile. There was no response to his statement as the deer let himself fall to the back of the group. More than a little confused, Handy watched him trudge behind the crowd and stare at his feet.

"He doesn't talk", Toothy said as he walked up beside him.

"Huh?'" Handy said.

"He just doesn't. He's like that".

He glanced back at the deer but he didn't seem to have any real interest in returning his glance. Feeling far too tired to care, he merely shook his head and glanced back up at Russell leading the way in front of them. His hook was swaying gently at his side.

"So you come here a lot?" Handy called out.

"Every so often", Russell said. "I always thought things were kind of nice out here. People are so caught up in things over inland but things are different when you're out in the sea. Nobody cares about anything".

"It's not good to be like that", Handy said. "Especially now. Being chill all the time isn't going to end well for you".

"Maybe it won't", Russell said brightly with that crooked smile. "But I'm not scared. I'll accept death when it comes, mate. And that reminds me. I may not be much for a speech, but there's one thing that I want to get clear. If something bad happens to anyone here, like if we get any of that rain inside our blood, don't hesitate in just finishing them off on the spot. Forget your friend and protect yourselves".

"That's messed up", Toothy replied. "but I guess it's the right thing to do".

"Damn right it is. And you have to be quick in finishing me too. You've seen what those infected look like. One swipe from their claws and you're bleeding on the ground. You have to be fast. You have to know what you're doing. You-

It all happened so fast. Stepping to close to the edge of the pier, Russell was suddenly halted in his steps by what sounded like a water balloon being punctured. His eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. Although the others were confused for a second, it didn't take long to put two and two together and figure out what had happened. Protruding out of Russell's foot was a loose nail that had been sticking out of the dock. Warm and wet blood trickled out in a large pool with the wound getting the ever-growing look that it had forced its way through every layer of skin the sea otter had to offer.

"_Ergghhh!"_

Russell sprung to life in a matter of seconds and swung his foot off the spear. A mist of blood flew into the air from the wound as he cradled his ruined foot against his chest. With the others to shocked to do anything, they could only watched as their captain blindly hopped backwards on one foot, howling at the top of his lungs. He stumbled down the entire dock, shrieking and howling without any real sense of direction. In the end, whatever direction he had in mind wasn't important. He hit the hull of the boat and collapsed with his leg a bloody smear on the wooden planks

"Jesus Christ!" Sniffles screamed.

It didn't end there either. From the moment he stepped on the nail, it seemed his life had become a giant chain-reaction. The force of him smashing into the side of his vessel and sent a strong vibration through every nook and cranny of the boat. It rocked senselessly in the tide as Russell continued to scream in pain. He didn't even stop screaming when the large shadow started to topple over him from the deck. Looking up, everyone felt their blood ran cold when they saw the second anchor balanced on the side of the deck above them. Russell smacking into the boat had caused it to topple over. _And from where he was sitting…_

"Oh my god!" Handy screamed. "Everybody get bac-

It was too late. The anchor came toppling over the top dock and swung down with the horrible hissing sound of flailing rope. For a hopeful second it looked like Russell would be able to get out of the way, but as it turned out, it was just wishful thinking. The anchor plummeted down and grazed the side of his head, sending a gout of blood exploding outward in a quick and efficient scalp. Having even more of a reason to scream now, Russell sat balanced on the dock for a second before toppling over head-first off the dock. Into the water. _The orange water…_

Everyone in the group made the connection just as the sea otter surfaced in the water. Sputtering out the orange rainwater and wailing at the top of his lungs, the head wound he'd sustained almost seemed to be throbbing like it was alive. Like an onion dropped into a pot of boiling water, Russell's body started to smoke in the water as he let out a nightmarish scream.

Nobody seemed to know how to react. The suddenness of the events seemed to put everyone into a state of panic. Toothy stared in horror at the water. Sniffles screamed like a girl and covered his eyes. Mime stood with a look of disbelief. Handy couldn't help but feel a sense of hopelessness as he watched it all. It was like how life must have been after an apocalypse.

"C'mon!" he yelled. "We have to do something!"

"Do what?' Toothy roared back. "I don't know about you man, but I saw about twenty of those creatures on the highway! I say we get the hell out of here and leave him! He even told us to!"

"Forget what he said!" Handy said. "He's dying! We have to fish hi-

Another nightmarish howl suddenly cut into the air. They all looked over to see Russell dragging himself back up onto the dock. Smoking from head to toe, his entire body was trembling as he dripped with orange water. The wound in his head was blowing out mist and his eyes looked agitated and primal like he was about to kill the next thing he saw. Cocking his head over to them, he gazed at them with a desperate look.

"Please…" he croaked. "Helme…Helme…."

Nobody would have predicted who was the first to act. There was a rush of movement at their side. The other three turned to see Mime rushing forward with a look of defiance. Grabbing Russell by the hook, he dragged him to his feet. For a second it looked like he was going to save him, or at least show him compassion, but that wasn't how it turned out. Looking on with a sad look on his face, Mime grabbed Russell's hook and dragged him down the dock toward the island. The sea otter screamed as his head bumped against the planks of wood, breaking open the wound that was slowly infecting him. Dashing out over the sea of ruined canoes, Mime jumped onto the shore and dashed toward the village of metal bunkers. He looked around wildly for a second before settling on one in the middle. Slamming all of his body weight into it, he merely bounced off with a metallic clang. The same thing happened on the second attempt. Frustrated, he looked over at the rest of them and pointed at them. Then he mimed opening a doorknob.

Despite the fact that they were confused and frightened, they were able to put two and two together.

"Let's go!" Handy called. "He wants us to help! And Toothy's right! This is what he told us to do anyway!'

The three of them dashed down the dock and over the shore of canoes. Scurrying up the hill, they quickly reached the bunker where Mime was standing with an anxious look on his face. Russell was slumped over against the bunker's wall, still howling in pain but starting to slur like he was speaking in tongue. As they reached him, he looked up at them like he had never seen them before.

"Keep me out", Russell screeched. "I'll be fine! Don't put me in there! I'll get better! _I won't change! Just-_

Nobody responded. They didn't want to have to do it, but they knew it was necessary. Toothy quickly ran forward and kicked the door as hard as he could. The lock was unfastened instantly and the door was knocked open with a hard clang to reveal a dark, rectangular room with sloped corners. Mime and Sniffles quickly grabbed a still protesting Russell and struggled to force him through the door. This proved difficult at first, as he was beginning to swat his hook at them and his eyes were clouding over to orange, but they finally managed to push him in. His screams were muffled as Handy rammed himself into the metal door and slammed it hard. Slumping down against the bunker's metal wall in exhaustion, he could only look on as Toothy fumbled with the lock and finally fastened in with his shaking fingers.

For a moment, there was only complete silence besides Russell banging nosily on the door from the other side. By the sound of it, his growing adrenaline was even denting the metal. Everybody stood around the bunker quietly without any idea of what to do next.

"Well", Handy sighed finally. "that definitely could have gone better…"

* * *

**A/N: Here's a quick run-down of the two groups to help you keep track.**

**North Group:**

**Flippy, Shifty, Lifty, Petunia, Cub, Giggles, Flaky, Nutty, Cuddles**

**South Group:**

**Russell, Handy, Toothy, Mime, Sniffles**

**And I have to tell you that something is going to happen in the next chapter that's going to piss a lot of people off. Please bear with me, because without it, the story would go nowhere. It's necessary for the plot. Anyway, with all of that aside, I want to thank everyone that's read the story so far and given such great feedback. It's really helping motivate me. **

**And although I'm not going to give away anything that happens later, I will tell you that Russell cracking his head open is incredibly important. And he's not dead. He's infected, but not dead. **


	8. Descent

**Descent**

* * *

Flippy had gotten used to the amount of bodies he'd seen on the side of the road. They'd decreased as they'd gotten farther and farther away from the city, but still, there was the occasional corpse on the side of the road that sent chills up his spine. It was funny when he thought about it, because of all people, he should have been used to the idea of death. He'd lived with the threat of it over his shoulder for as long as he could remember…

He stood against the van on the side of the road and smoked his cigarette with his rifle held loosely at his side. The corpse of the squirrel on the other side of the road certainly was a mystery. Horrifying, but at the same time, a mystery. A long slash across its belly had split it open and let its intestines fall out all over the path in a bloody mess. The shocked look in its dead eyes was enough of a hint to tell him that the squirrel hadn't been infected. It had simply been a victim in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"_So they've spread out further then",_ Flippy thought. _"If one of those things really got him they really must be spreading out away from the city. We're going to have to get out of here and move faster…"_

He couldn't help but groan at the fact. Exhausted from driving the entire day, he wanted nothing more than to collapse and fall asleep right on the spot. After leaving the farm where he'd quickly briefed his ragtag group of refugees, they'd driven for roughly four hours before settling on a deserted clearing on the side of the road for a bathroom break. It wasn't much really. It was just a dirt patch in the center of the forest where trees hadn't grown for some odd reason. A red gate fenced off the clearing into a trail that led deep into the woods. _Probably for hiking or something. You used to do that a lot when you were little. Good exercise. What the hell ever happened to growing up?_

His youth hadn't been easy. If anything, he could admit that he had been disturbed. Death was something that had fascinated the bear as a child. Being drafted into Veitnam as a teenager had only worsened this when he saw people he grew to know and love as friends gunned down around him. Some of their deaths had even been his own fault. The sound of bullets firing had gotten so haunting that he had started hearing it when he was sleeping in the barracks at night. But he'd made it out. He'd been battle-scarred and traumatized by everything he'd done, but he'd made it out with the growing bewilderment that he was still alive. Things had only gotten worse upon his arrival home. After a few paranoid months where he'd even attacked a few people, he'd been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. It helped knowing that there was actually a name for the symptoms he was feeling, but still, it didn't make things any better.

So he'd become a recluse. After all, when you attacked people at the drop of a pin, what else was there to do? Loading his house with food and supplies, he'd become an urban hermit in his apartment and prepared to live out the rest of his life alone with rumors spreading about him through the neighborhood like clockwork. That was the hardest part, because in the back of his mind, that wasn't what he wanted. Flippy didn't want to die. Especially as an outcast who lived alone in his apartment. He wanted friends. He wanted unity. And most of all, he wanted a family. But for some reason, it had just never happened…

"Mind if I have one of those?" a voice called

Flippy glanced up from his cigarette to see one of the raccoon brothers walking toward him. He hadn't learned his name yet and mainly categorized him as the one who didn't wear a hat.

"You're too young to smoke", Flippy said coldly. "It'll kill you".

"It's not like I haven't done it before", Lifty said. "And I think there's worse things around here that would kill me than screwing my lungs up a little".

"Point taken", Flippy said with a smile. "but I'm still not going to give you one. Where are the others?"

"Still pissing in the woods, I guess. I didn't have to go so I stayed in the van. The baby's still sleeping so I just left it inside. So we're back on our little road trip again after this?"

"Looks like it", Flippy responded with another drag from the cigarette. "Unless there's an alternative, my logic's just to keep moving until we can't move anymore".

"And what happens then?" Lifty said with a glare. "What happens when we get cornered somewhere down the road. Is it your logic to just let us get picked off one by one like cattle too?"

Flippy stared. "What do you mean?"

Lifty glared at him. It was clear that the raccoon was more than a little pissed off. The true reason of why he'd stayed behind in the van was coming out. It wasn't that he hadn't had to go to the bathroom. He'd just wanted to wait until everyone else was gone so he could personally corner Flippy about his battle plan_. Great, just great_. _No one even trusts each other out here. Some family this is turning out to be…_

"Look, I appreciate everything you're trying to do for us", Lifty continued. "but I just don't buy what you're selling. If we're just going to keep running what's the point? I'm not going to try to live as long as possible if it just means I'm going to get picked off somewhere down the line. What you're making us do is just a mass suicide on wheels".

"You can think what you want", Flippy said. "I'm not keeping you here and you can leave whenever you want".

"I never said I wanted to leave", Lifty replied. "I have my own reasons to stick around".

"Like?"

"Well, there's strength in numbers. And even if I could convince Shifty to come with me, we wouldn't last a day out there on our own. He likes to think that we could, but we can't. He's always like that. He just thinks too much of himself…"

"Do you guys fight a lot?" Flippy asked.

"Not really. It's more of him just shoving me around and me being too chill to say anything back. It's always been like that. Even when we were little. People always think I'm a coward for not fighting back with him. And then they think we're both stupid just because we're criminals…"

"I think you're smart", Flippy said.

Lifty raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

"Sure. You can think on your feet which is a hell of a lot to say compared to everyone else out here. And you're smart by not fighting back. I wish I could say the same…"

"What? Life's got you down?"

"It's nicer to some than others", Flippy replied. "I get I just got off on the bad road. It was like that ever since I got out of the war. I mean, I saw things there that a street kid like you would drop dead at the sight of. Blood was spraying through the air so fast that I started thinking water cannons were just pumping it out non-stop. I saw my friends gunned down around me. Even when I got out, the feelings didn't stop. Must have been nuts for a little while. So nuts that I barricaded myself inside my own house just because I'm afraid of the world hurting me again. I'd look out the window at night and think about how screwed up it all was. I mean, it's not what I wanted. I don't want to spend the rest of my life thinking about death and how awful everything was. I want to move on and start a real life. But I can't. Stress disorders will do that to you…"

The silence when he finished speaking was almost deafening. The raccoon eyed him curiously. Feeling more than a little embarrassed, Flippy quickly bowed his head and inhaled on his cigarette.

"Sorry", Flippy sighed. "I get like that sometimes. Kind of nostalgic…"

"No, it's fine. It was actually pretty hardcore. You should write a book with that kind of material".

Flippy smiled. He was about to ask the raccoon his name when he became aware of heavy footprints crushing through the dirt and twigs behind them. Turning away from the road and toward the forest, they watched as Nutty appeared out of the trail with a jovial smile on his face. He hurried over to them shaking more than he ever had before. Panting with his wobbly eye spinning in his head, he spoke quickly with all of his words mashing into each other.

"Hey guys!" Nutty said excitedly. "You gotta' check out what we found!"

* * *

Flippy wasn't sure how they managed to keep up with Nutty. The long car ride had only seemed to have intensified his hyperactivity and he seemed to run faster at every turn on the trail. It was pretty clear to them that he'd found something cool. He'd said it about fifteen times. Grunting as he carried his rifle and dashed after him, Flippy couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed. On a normal day, he wouldn't have followed the squirrel if his life depended on it. He would have hauled his ass back into the van and prevented him from going on some kind of idealistic adventure. But when the squirrel approached them, he'd done with it such excitement in his eyes that it was clear that he wasn't going to leave until he got to show them what he wanted. _You just have to be like that man. Never leave anyone behind my ass. Why do you always have to be the good guy?_

"Where are you taking us?' Flippy yelled. "and where are the others?"

"Waiting!" Nutty called back. "but wait til' you see what I found! It's so cool!"

"Will you shut up already?" Lifty shouted. "for God's sake, we get it already. It's cool, it's awesome, it's going to freak us out! We get it! Just shut your damn mouth or I'll do it for you!"

This didn't stop the squirrel in running at all. In fact, it didn't even seem to faze him whatsoever. Nutty let out his creepy, signature laugh as he ran down the trail at full-speed with them gaining behind him. They weaved through the forest's path like it was a brown ribbon of dirt. Trees loomed over in sharp branches and cascaded shadows all over the canopy. With civilization destroyed not too far away, it seemed strange to Flippy that a place so peaceful could even exist.

"Do you have any bullets in that gun?" Lifty asked as he ran up beside him.

"Enough", Flippy said. "I'll manage anyway. I probably should have unlocked the trunk. There's a couple shotguns but there's enough pistols to go around twice if we need them too. They look brand new too. Polished em' every night".

Lifty gave him an uneasy look. "Are you seriously telling me that you lived as a hermit for forty years in an apartment and spent every night of yours polishing guns that you didn't even have a good reason to have?"

"Yeah. Is that a bad thing?"

"Probably", Lifty said simply. "but I wouldn't tell the others. They'll think you're some kind of serial killer".

"Everyone always says there's no good reason to have a gun", Flippy said with a grin. "and right now, they're all dead while I'm out alive on the road with fifty of them in my back trunk".

"I'll decide later if that makes you a sick freak or a hero. Either way, I think you're justified to feel proud".

The trail laced around the trees for several more minutes. For a moment they thought they were going in circles, and the same moment, they found themselves questioning why they'd followed Nutty into the forest in the first place. But then, turning a sharp bend, all of their questions were answered.

"We're here", Nutty said.

The path ended abruptly as it flowed out into a clearing of weeds and grass. Gazing around, they locked eyes right away on what was perhaps one of the strangest buildings they'd ever seen in their life. Covered in ivy growing from the woods, it was a makeshift cottage that looked like it was straight out of a fairytale. Relatively large and looking like it sunk partly into the ground, it was covered in white paint that had faded and left it a patchy brown forest so it could blend in with the forest.

"_What the hell?"_ Flippy thought.

As they walked forward, they were relieved at the sight of the rest of the group standing near the front door. Cuddles was sitting on the porch of the building with his face buried in his hands. Petunia, Flaky and Giggles were all standing in a tight huddle beside him and talking quietly among themselves. Shifty, on the other hand, almost looked like he didn't want to be associated with the rest of the group. His back turned to them, he stood by the rickety-looking fence post surrounding the cottage. The look of indifference on his face instead of his usual cocky smile told them that he had no clue what was going on either.

"Is that someone's house?" Lifty asked as he approached him

"No idea", Shifty said. "Nutty saw it and called us all over here. Waste of time if you ask me".

"If someone lives here", Petunia cut in suddenly. "I think it's the right choice to go in and take them with u-

"We have enough people already", Shifty growled. "And that baby of yours is only weighing us down even more".

"You can leave the baby out of this", she snapped. "And besides, you didn't let me finish. I said it was the right choice. Not the smart choice. The smart choice would be to clear out of here. Besides, if they live all alone in the middle of the woods like this, the odds are they're not going to be that into a bunch of strangers dragging them away from their home".

"But we can't just leave them here!" Giggles protested. "It's wrong! The rain's going to come soon and whoever's in there is just going to die! We have to take them with us no matter what!"

"Think about that for a second", Lifty sighed. "What would you do if someone knocked on your door one day and told you a rain storm was coming that was going to turn you into some kind of blood-thirsty creature? Call me crazy but I don't think you'd be running out the front door".

To this nobody had anything to say. As everyone assessed the situation, Flippy gazed up above the doorway. Although it was hard to see under the peeling, white paint, he could make out the faint image of a red cross. _Wait a second, this isn't a house…_

"I say we go in", Cuddles said finally. "If there's anything in there we can take em'".

"There you go again!" Giggles snapped. "You always have to barge into other people's lives and act like everything's fun and games, don't you? This isn't an adventure, you idiot! This is real life! And if there's someone behind that door, they might be dead in the next few hours unless we step in and do something about i-

"It's not a house", Flippy said. "and there's no one inside".

Everyone turned to face him with a confused look on their face. He was quick to respond.

"It's a clinic", he explained. "People get hurt hiking on these trails all the time. There has to be clinics in these woods by law so people have easy access to medical supplies if they get hurt. I used to go hiking a lot when I was little. You almost always find one".

"So there's no one here then", Flaky said cheerfully. "Well, let's get out of her-

"I'm not finished", Flippy said. "I have everything in my trunk to keep us alive during this little escapade. There's only one thing I missed out on. Medical supplies. All I have are a few bandages and a few bottles of ointment. If one of us gets really hurt down the road, we're screwed".

Petunia glanced at him warily. "So we're going in there?"

"Well, we'll take a vote. But remember, the odds are that we're not going to find another one of these down the road. For everyone who wants to get back on the road, raise your hand".

There was a moment of awkward silence before anybody responded. Flaky sighed and raised a trembling hand into the air. Standing beside her and soon to follow were Petunia and Giggles. There was nobody else after that, and by the look of it, the vote could have been unanimous right there.

"That's three", Flippy said. "and all in favor of raiding the place dry?"

Every other member of the group raised their hand. Looking at all the hands raised, Flippy almost forgot that his vote mattered too. With slight reluctance, he raised his hand into the air. _It's going to be quick. Just get in and get out. You need the supplies. No one's going to get hurt…_

"So it's settled", Flippy said finally. "in we go".

"This is such a stupid idea…" Flaky grumbled under her breath.

And with that, the eight, soon to be seven, refugees walked into the medical center with the door swaying behind them.

* * *

The clinic was cold and had the same distilled scent of the hallways of hospitals. A mixture of distilled water and cough syrup. As the doors closed, they found themselves in a long and narrow hallway with mirrored walls at every corner. Signs about safety decorated the borders of the mirrors as the hallway sloped down into an undergrowth. It looked like the center actually tunneled under the earth like a bomb shelter.

"Damn, it's dark", Cuddles said. "Anyone got a flashlight?"

"Forget the flashlight", Flaky said. "If we can't see there's no point in staying. Let's just leave while we still have the chance".

"Will you stop that?" Petunia growled. "Just stop being so pessimistic. Everything's going to be fine.

"Famous last words", Flaky sighed.

Their conversation died out to silence as they walked down the hallway. Flippy led the way with his rifle cradled in his hands. Trudging down the tunnel and into the undergrowth, they found the hallway opened up into a large room. Metal cabinets ran down in neat rows like a library with different note tags on them. First-aid kits lined the top of the shelves. If someone hadn't already cleared out the place before they got there, it was a gold mine of medicine.

"Well, bust open those drawers and stock up", Flippy said. "We can't be here long".

No one wanted to be alone in the dark room and quickly paired up. After everybody vanished to different cabinets, Flippy wasn't surprised to see Flaky standing alone and looking terrified out of her mind.

"Here", he said. "You can come with me".

"Thanks a lot", she said. She paused for a second. "What are those?'

She was talking about the rack of metal tubes propped up against the far wall that gleamed in the darkness. They would have resembled fire extinguishers if it wasn't for the fact that they were bright silver. Tracing back his memories, Flippy could remember seeing them at a first-aid station during the war.

"Oxygen tanks, I think", Flippy said numbly. "People hyperventilate when they walk on the trails a lot. Here, help me look through this drawer. I think it's open".

He pulled the handle hard and slid the cabinet open with a metallic hiss. The note card was too hard to read in the dark but they could see several white boxes of bandages. He piled the load into his hands.

"Start clearing out the next few drawers", Flippy said

"Sure", Flaky replied. "Hey, look! I found a flashlight after all!"

She was right. There was a black flashlight that had been sitting behind the boxes. Flippy hadn't noticed it because it blended in with the darkness. Flaky smiled and reached out to grab it. Flipping the switch, she turned it on and let a ray of line shine through the medical center. She scanned the wall of oxygen tanks with it before bringing it up to the hole in the ceiling.

There was a moment where Flippy realized something was horribly wrong. Things were almost too quiet and the air became tense beyond belief. With the rays shining through the hole and lighting up the attic's beams, there was a rustle of activity that almost made his skin crawl. For a second he thought it was just a hoard of bats, but it couldn't be. They were too large to be anything else but his worst fear. The facts were simple now. There was something in the hole above them. It was alive. And whatever it was, they had just woken it up….

"FLAKY!" he screamed. "GET OUT OF THE WA-

It was too late. With a chorus of nightmarish howls, figures began to descend down from the hole. They hit the ground hard in a mess that would have easily killed anyone else, but it simply seemed to be a minor inconvenience for them. Glancing down at one of their feet, Flippy was shocked to see that the fall had sent its bones splitting out of its ankle in a bloody smear. The creature didn't seem to care though. It snarled at him with its orange eyes gleaming in the room's duskiness. _There's at least seven of those things…you saw what one of them could do back in town….but you can't leave after all of th-_

His thoughts were ended as one of the creatures lunged toward them with a sharp hissing sound.

And so it began.

* * *

"ERGHHHH!"

Lifty gazed up from the cabinet he'd managed to break open in horror. He looked across the room just in time to see Flaky screaming as one of the creatures grabbed her around the throat. She struggled as best as she could, and for a horrible second, it looked like the beast was going to finish her. But it didn't. Tightening its grip around her windpipe and somehow not crushing it, it tossed her into the air like a ragdoll and sent her screaming into the wall. There was the ear-splitting crack of her wrist breaking as she tumbled to the ground howling. With her flashlight flickering still on the wall, he was able to make out the bloody smear her arm had left….

Lifty slammed his fists into the cabinet and swore furiously. He'd known in the back of his mind it had been a stupid idea to go in the clinic. Why the hell had he raised his hand? _It's Shifty's fault. You always have to do what he does. And now we're all going to die because you don't know how to make a choice for yourself…_

He glanced over at his brother beside him. Looking equally as shell-shocked, he didn't seem to have any clue what to do either. Nobody did. Gazing around quickly through the aisles of cabinets, he took a quick mental note of everyone. In the row in front of him, Giggles let out a shrill cry and ran behind Cuddles for protection. A few rows further back, Nutty and Petunia didn't seem to have much of a battle plan either other than to stare in alarm at the chaos.

"Something tells me this raid's over", Shifty said quickly. "Let's get out of here".

Lifty glared. "How the hell do you propose we do tha-

His words were cut off by an animalistic shriek beside him. His world was flipped upside-down Feeling his body pushed to the ground by a powerful force, he cringed as sharp nails dug into his chest. One of the creatures had rammed its head into him and pinned him to the floor like a rodeo bull. Baring its teeth and making a macabre noise from its throat, it swung out its claws. Reacting quickly, he rolled to the side and saved his life as the creature dug its fingernails into the floor. The sound was like nails on the world's biggest blackboard.

"HELP ME!" he screamed. "JESUS CHRIST, HELP ME!"

Staring out across the ground, he was able to see Cuddles fighting over another creature. Although he had it pinned to the floor and was kneeling on its chest, it seemed to be a losing battle. The creature kept snarling and tearing as the rabbit struggled to hold back his hands from his face. Still, despite the circumstances, it looked like he was having the time of his life. _Guy better hope he doesn't get a scratch on him or he's dead. What the hell is he doing here anyway?_

"Are you stupid or something?" Lifty yelled at him. "Get out of here!"

"What?" Cuddles called back.

Lifty didn't have time to answer. The creature swung its mighty claws again and ended up getting a direct hit. A shallow one, but a direct hit. The nails scratched across his forehead in three sharp marks that sent three small mists of blood spurting into the air. When he noticed how the creature's mouth was practically dripping with orange citrus, he couldn't help but scream in panic. Just one drop in his cut would be the end of it…

"Stop!" Lifty pleaded. "Get off me!'

It was a stupid request. The beast obviously didn't want to do anything else but kill him. Lifty watched helplessly as the creature cocked its head to the side and raised its hand into the air again. This was the final swipe. The swipe that would be the end of-

_KA-CLANG!_

There was a dull metallic clang that echoed through the entire clinic. The creature suddenly went cock-eyed and fell to the ground beside him, splattering him with a gruesome mist of skull fragments from the newfound wound in his head. Bathed from head to toe in gore, Lifty looked up in shock to see his brother standing over him. One of the cabinet's drawers had been torn out by him and was dangling in his left hand. Dented from crashing in on the creature's head, it was covered in speckles of orange. His heartbeat going wild, Lifty quickly brushed his head wound. _No rain in there. Thank god…_

"That's two times I've had to come and save your ass now", Shifty said.

"Don't remind me", Lifty said simply. "Let's just get out of here".

The two raccoon brothers scurried out from behind the row of cabinets and toward the hallway they'd entered the clinic through. The air was full of gunshots and screaming in what seemed like every direction possible. Shadows lurched toward them at every corner. As they neared the hallway, they caught sight of four figures standing near the undergrowth. Flaky sat in the doorframe massaging her broken wrist. Petunia, who had undoubtfully helped carry her there, just stood there screaming to no one in particular. Giggles stood beside her while Nutty, his signature grin still somehow on her face, sat against the wall beside her. None of them even made eye contact with them as they approached.

"You know on a list of really stupid ideas", Petunia said. "I think this one ranks pretty high up there".

"We'll argue later", Lifty said quickly. "Let's get out of here. Where's Cuddles?"

"Over here", a voice called from behind them.

Everyone turned to see the rabbit standing there and bathed from head to toe in gore. The fight had obviously been hard, but by the look of it, he'd managed to beat the creature. The fact that there were pieces of brain dripping gave everyone the signal that they really didn't have any business to know what happened.

"Finished that thing off", Cuddles said brightly. "Kind of gross if you think about it. How have you guys held up?"

"I'm not holding up", Petunia said. "I'm getting out of this nightmare right now. Flippy, c'mon!"

Everyone had almost forgotten that he was still there. There'd been so much hectic activity in the room that nobody had really taken the time to notice that the bear was still there. But he was. He stood in the center of the war-zone, frantically taking pop-shots at the creatures with his rifle. Although it looked like he'd managed to kill a few, it seemed to be a losing battle. The things moved with Olympian strength and his heavy breathing made it clear that he was tiring out. Just as they all turned to look at him, he fired a shot at one of the creature's heads and watched it explode in a bright red mess.

"Flippy!" Petunia called again. "Make a run for it! You can ma-

"I'm not making a run for it", Flippy shouted. "I'm finishing these bastards off. Get out of here before you get killed!"

"Fli-

"JUST GO!"

Although he did startle quite a few members of the group, he didn't get any of them out through the tunnel to safety. His speech about sticking together as a family had seemed to have sunken in at the very worst time. No one really seemed prepared to leave someone they knew in a war-zone. More than a little frustrated, he aimed the rifle at the wall beside them and fired a well-placed shot. It didn't come anywhere near them, but as he planned, it was enough to get them to realize that getting on the move was the only option. The small crowd quickly made a mad bustle to get through the tunnel's doorway. Watching them all leave, he couldn't help but feel the smallest bit of satisfaction. _It's_ _your fault this happened. But you'll save them all. This is your time._ _You're going to be leading this family and you're never going to die! You've faced things a hell of a lot worse than this! Show these things who's boss!_

Flippy quickly cocked his rifle and turned back to the creatures. His time to address the others had given them enough time to make another lunge for him. Swinging out the carbines of the rifle in defense, he bashed it hard into one of their faces. The creature howled and blubbered up blood, but only having the tunnel-vision of murdering him, it didn't seem to care much. The second swipe it made for him was ended when he shot the beast in the heart. _That's another one down…_

He wasn't prepared for the other creature that attacked him from behind. Dashing up to him and leaping in the air like an acrobat from hell, it latched onto his back and clawed at his shoulder. There was no way he could defend himself from this. Almost gracefully, the monster bared its teeth and bit off a chunk of his shoulder. Flippy howled at the pain of his lost flesh as arterial blood gushed out. Cradling the rifle in his arms, he struggled to get a clean shot of the monster. It was running away from him again, ready to arc in for the final kill. Somehow forming a smile through the massive blood, Flippy fired a shot.

It was the biggest mistake of his life.

Flippy watched everything happen in slow-motion. The shot ended up missing and blasting into one of the many oxygen tanks on the wall, causing it to sizzle and spark like a barbecue. Blown backward from the impact of the shot, the creature ended up falling into the same oxygen tank. Combined with the sizzling bullet and the flames, it started to rock uncontrollably. Fumes popped off as the metal began to run like wax. To Flippy though, it was horribly clear what was about to happen. He wouldn't even have time to move…

"_You're not going to be the leader…"_ he thought. _"There's not going to be a family…no journey…no anything...god damn it…"_

The oxygen tank exploded and sent metal debris flying in every single direction. Although it lit up the room in fiery, white sparks, most of the refugees were too far away for it to do any harm. Only one had the misfortune of being directly in its path. Without the time to even move an inch, the war veteran was killed instantly when the shrapnel was buried into his skull. Another piece of scrap metal swung forward like a boomerang and took off half of his left arm. Dropping the rifle to the ground and still being pelted by the flaming material like a meteor shower, Flippy's flaming corpse hit the floor with a hard thud.

POP! POP! POP!

The oxygen tank detonating let off a chain reaction of every other one on the rack. Fire blossomed within fire as every single one of the metal cylinders began to implode in on themselves. With what seemed like hundreds of harsh pops, the room began to ignite in flames. With a humid fog rising to the wooden pillars in the ceiling's hole, the entire structure of the house was consumed in a fiery inferno. Any infected left inside were incinerated instantly. By then though, the seven remaining refugees were all fleeing down the hallway to safety. It was a good thing too, because a few moments later, there wouldn't be a hallway to flee down. The entire medical center swayed in the flames like it was being hit with a mighty wind. And then, with the sound of cracking wood echoing everywhere, the entire center began to collapse into a pile of debris.

* * *

Shifty wasn't sure how they all managed to get outside alive. The explosion was so loud that he almost felt like his eardrums were going to burst. As they ran down the tunnel and fled for their lives, he swore that he felt the fire lick his fur and actually burn some off. But there wasn't any time to think. As he ran through the tunnel, he'd watched everyone practically trample each other to survive. He pictured them all dead by the time they got to the end, having climbed over each other's backs to survive…

But they'd made it. Against all odds, they'd actually made it outside. The only sounds in the night now were the crackling of the fire behind them and the ringing of the explosion in their ears. Now that they'd finally gotten outside, they realized that the sun had set during their time in the center. Even though the cloud was still miles away, the sky was lit up in hues of orange across the horizon line with the smoke from the cottage drifting into the air. None of them had much of a chance to gaze up at the sky though. Dashing out away from the burning medical center, they all coughed out ash as they struggled not to collapse to the ground from exhaustion.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up…" Giggles coughed.

"Does anybody have any cuts on them?" Petunia asked warily. "None of the rain dripping from those things got in, right?"

"We're all clean", Shifty concluded. "I think…"

"I'm not", Flaky moaned. "My wrist….I…I think it's broken…"

The porcupine cringed as she raised her arm for the others to see. Even with the day gradually fading, they could tell that it was out of proportion. Not even the medical supplies they'd gathered would help. She needed surgery from a real doctor who knew what he was doing.

"It hurts", Flaky continued. She paused for a second. "But we're going to go back in, right? I mean, we didn't all get out. He said we would stay together, you know".

Her question was answered with a tense silence. But it didn't matter. The answer was simple. Nobody was willing to risk their life by going back into a cottage to pull out a body.

"But we have to go back in!" Flaky said frantically. "We have to! Flippy! He-

"No", Petunia said. There were tears in her eyes. "Nobody could have gotten out of that. He's dead…"

"But he can't be dead", Giggles said. "I mean, he had a plan! He had a _plan_, damn it! And he was going to keep us all aliv-

"That doesn't mean anything", Petunia whispered. "He's gone. No survival plan of his is going to save us now. We're screwed".

"Forget the plan!" Flaky wailed. "This isn't just a survival kit that died in a fire! It's a person! You're just acting like he's a map that would have guided you to safety! And we just let him die!"

"We knew him for half a day!" Lifty cut in. "Excuse us for not giving up our lives for him just because he said he had a plan!"

"It doesn't matter though", Cuddles sighed. "Petunia's right. He's dead and we're on our own now…"

Nobody said anything for the next few moments. The constant whimpering made it hard for even the strongest of them to not have a breakdown right there. The trees rustled their leaves together above them, almost mocking them. The crackling of the flaming wood was horribly repetitive. _Crackle…pop..pop…crackle..pop…pop…_

"So", Flaky said sadly. "where are we off to next?"

"Cub's been in the van forever", Petunia said. "We better go back…".

"I can drive…" Lifty said faintly.

The eight of them slowly rose to their feet and started an ambling walk through the forest. As the rest of the group retreated back, Shifty stood and stared at burning building that was crumbling in on itself. More than anything, things just didn't make sense. Just this morning, things had been normal. He'd robbed a store and been able to laugh it off the next minute. It hadn't been the most normal life, but it had given him a sense of security. He'd been a proud criminal and nobody had ever messed with him. Sure, there were times when he wondered where the hell his life was going and if it was ever going to change, but he always pushed that away. It was his life. How could he change it?

But, nevertheless, things had changed. And for the worse…

"_That's one of us down",_ he thought_. "And probably a lot more to go too…."_

Shifty sighed and walked away from the cottage warily to follow the others. It was going to be one hell of a road trip.

* * *

**A/N: How's that for a twist? :) Sorry if I made anyone mad, because I know that the character I killed off has a huge fan base, but it was necessary for the story to go on and planned from the very beginning. Because of the summer starting, I'll be able to update the story at a much quicker pace now.**


	9. Overnight

**Overnight**

* * *

Two hours later, Flaky sat in a tent and considered the gun in her hand. Part of her felt her hands practically begging her to put it in her mouth and bail out early, and in blatant honesty, it actually seemed like the best idea she'd had so far. She knew she wasn't a fighter. She knew she was going to die. So what point was there in sticking around?

The porcupine sighed as she drummed her fingers on the pistol and rested it in her lap beside her tattered wrist. Just by looking at it, it was clear that infection was beginning to seep in. Although she'd stopped bleeding, the deep gash she'd suffered from smashing into the wall had swollen up. Along with that, the bones felt like they'd been clogged with flammable jelly. Fearing for the worst, she flexed her finger and cringed as a wave of pain swept up her arm. _Great, just great…_

Flaky was alone in the tent by choice. Outside, she could hear the crackling embers of the campfire that the others were gathered around. The shadows of the fire draped all over the tent's folds and lit it up like some kind of fabric planetarium. She knew she shouldn't have been in the tent. The right choice would have been to stick with the others and actually be part of a group instead of sitting by herself. But that was all just wishful thinking. If she couldn't bring herself to trust them, it was better off to be alone…

Still feeling the wave of pain surging up her arm, she sighed and clicked the gun on safety. After walking back to the car, they'd raided the trunk of the ammunition Flippy had brought. As it turned out, it wasn't as well-stocked as he'd said. There were only about four guns in total and most of the food was the processed kind suited for astronauts. One of the only useful things they'd found was a pair of tents. They'd considered sleeping out on the open road near the van, but after some debating, they'd decided dragging the tents into the woods and camping out was a better idea. Everyone said it was safer that way. It just frightened Flaky even more.

"_You're stupid…"_ she thought. _"You're a wimp. And now you're going to die…"_

Even if she kept convincing herself otherwise, she couldn't kill herself. Not even in her wildest dreams. All her life, Flaky had admittedly been a coward who jumped at the sight of her own shadow. Everything always seemed out go her, and as her luck turned out, everything usually was. The world was dangerous. And if she wanted to be safe, she had to hide from it. _This is way too much. You didn't ask for any of this to happen. You don't want to die. Why the hell are you even her-_

"Flaky?"

The voice nearly made her jump out of her skin. Almost as a first instinct, she clicked her pistol off safety and aimed it at her attacker.

"Jesus Flaky! Get that thing away from me!"

It was Petunia. Her head was poking through the flap of the tent. With shocked eyes and a frightened expression, she looked in even worse shape than she did. All in all, she couldn't blame her. In fact, she didn't really blame any of them. Ever since Flippy had left the group, things had really fallen apart.

"I'm sorry", Flaky sighed as she lowered the gun. "I'm just nervous…"

"You scared me to death", Petunia sighed. "I'm just checking up on you and I'm at the risk of getting my brains blown out. Anyway, dinner's almost ready. Why don't you come on out and give us girls a hand with the cooking? We could really use someone who knows what they're doing".

"I'm fine", Flaky sighed. "I'm not in the mood to cook. I'm not even in the mood to eat…"

"You can't stay in here forever", Petunia said lightly. "And you'll have to eat eventually".

Flaky glanced at the skunk warily. Ever since the disaster in the clinic where they'd lost their leader, the group had been powerless in taken care of itself. Everyone had been fighting, everyone had been arguing, but nobody had really been listening to what anyone else had to say. Everyone seemed grounded firmly to their own set of beliefs and only seemed to care about keeping themselves alive. It was a disaster. They were the very opposite of the family that Flippy had been aiming for.

"You're not going to leave until I come outside, are you?" Flaky asked.

"Well, I'm leaving that up to you. Just because you're scared of what's going to happen doesn't mean you shouldn't face your problems. We're all in this together. And it's unhealthy to be alone like this."

"Unhealthy?" Flaky spat. "Unhealthy? I've lost my family, I'm running for my life with a bunch of strangers, I'm obviously going to die and you're complaining about being unhealthy? What's wrong with you?"

"I'm just looking out for you", Petunia said gently. "I don't want anything bad to happen. One of us is already gone, and if we don't stay together, we're just going to get picked off like flies until there's nobody left. And that's the last thing I want to happen". She paused for a second. "Nutty keeps saying he wants to leave…"

Flaky raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. I think all of this is starting to get to him. But every time he says anything, everyone either shuts him up or he just contradicts himself and looks like an idiot. He's scared. I don't think he trusts anyone here. I think Lifty and Shifty might want to strike out on their own too They're smart enough not to though. They know they won't last a second out there if it's just them. And they're pretty much using us all as human shields until they can think of a better plan".

"And what about Giggles and Cuddles?"

"Cuddles is almost happy to be here", Petunia sighed. "He's acting like this whole thing is some kind of epic journey that's supposed to be fun. He just doesn't get it that life and death are in the picture out here. And Giggles is just playing the damsel in distress until something happens where she's going to have to fight for herself. I don't see it ending well for either of them. Besides, those two are together. Neither one is going to leave the other behind".

"What about you?" Flaky asked. "Where do you fit in with all of this?"

"I'm just trying to keep my head above water", Petunia laughed. "And I have a headache from all this yelling. No one belongs out here. I just wish we were all home…"

"I've been wishing that a lot", Flaky sighed. "Ever since we got on the road actually…"

There was a deafening silence between the two girls. Outside the tent, they could hear the sound of the campfire crackling out embers. A moment later, there was the scattered mutter of somebody arguing outside. The family was falling apart more and more at every second.

"Can I ask you something?" Flaky said finally.

"Fire away".

"Do you think there's any hope for someone like me out here?"

Petunia stared. "What do you mean?"

"Face it", Flaky said. "I'm dead on arrival. If I didn't even stand a chance in a normal life back at home, I don't stand a chance out here. Do you think so too?"

At that moment, the gun in her lap suddenly felt heavy. Almost like it was too much of a burden to carry. The entire world seemed to way down on her. In the back of her mind, the strange thought slipped in of wanting the tent to just sink into the ground and vanish forever. She was prepared for the worst answer possible. Instead, she got a warm smile from the skunk.

"To tell you the truth, Flaky", Petunia said. "I don't. I don't think you're as pathetic as you might think you are. You could be a fighter just as much as anyone else out here. And at the rate we're going right now, you're going to live forever".

"Then could you promise me something?" Flaky whispered "Promise nothing bad's going to happen to me?"

"I can't promise that. But I'm going to do my best to keep everyone together. Will you come outside?"

Flaky smiled. "Maybe later…"

"Well, at least that's a start. Stay gold and don't do anything that's going to push you over the edge".

Giving her a final smile, Petunia gave a nod and vanished through the flap of the tent. Almost immeadidly, the shadows of the tree branches returned and looked more menacing than ever. Taking in a deep breath, Flaky grabbed the pistol in her lap, clicked it back on safety, and tossed it gently to the other side of the tent. It landed with a soft thud on the patchwork quilt of blankets she'd lain out. And with that, she curled up in her sleeping bag and tried as hard as she could to go to sleep.

* * *

"Flaky still won't come outside", Petunia sighed as she closed the flap of the tent.

"Leave her alone then", Shifty said. "She's just being stupid…"

They were all gathered around on the sparse logs they'd pulled into the clearing. The embers of the campfire crackled in front of them as the smoke billowed up into the night sky. Although they'd decided it was giving away their hiding spot, some kept their flashlights on out of plain fear. Scattered around them was a hodgepodge of materials they'd found in the trunk. Lanterns, several pistols, two rifles, several granola bars, a machete. It was clear that Flippy had really stocked up…

Petunia sighed as she walked over to the log and took a seat beside Giggles whom had Cub sleeping on her lap. Gazing back at the pair of tents, she made out the dull outline of Flaky huddled up in one of them. At this she couldn't help but grimace. It wasn't like she'd been one of the many volunteers that had offered to go check up on her. She'd been the only one. And she'd just done it because she knew nobody else was going to. It made her feel sick. Just because Flaky was terrified out of her mind, everybody was treating her like she was invisible. _They just want to ignore all their problems. What kind of logic is that?_

"How'd it go?" Giggles asked her.

"Bad", Petunia said. "She thinks everyone is out to get her".

"Poor girl. Did you try reasoning with her?"

"I tried", Petunia replied. "But something tells me I only made it worse. Is Cuddles still keeping watch?"

"I think. His shift's going to be over soon though…"

Glancing away from her friend, she looked around the fire. Nutty was sitting directly across from her. For someone who had been so vocal just moments before, he now looked unfazed by the situation. The squirrel's mouth was covered in cream from what looked like some kind of Hostess cake he'd found packaged in the trunk. That was something she noticed about Nutty. When he didn't have sugar, he became paranoid and started calling people out like a maniac. But when he was face-deep in a Twinkie, nothing in the world seemed to matter to him. Lifty and Shifty were sitting on the log beside him in deep conversation. It struck her powerfully for some reason that nobody besides them was talking to each other. They weren't a group. People that were together under circumstances, sure, but not a group.

"Dinner's ready. Take one and pass it on".

Petunia turned back to Giggles to see her holding a paper plate with several greasy-looking slab of meat on it that she'd baked against the firewood. Grimacing but forcing a smile, she accepted one and took a bite out of it before passing the plate across the fire. It wasn't that bad. Just a little too chewy. It had been a well-known fact to her for years that Giggles really couldn't cook.

"So", Lifty said as he took a steak. "Any idea of when the rain's going to catch up?"

"I'd say we have about four hours on it until it comes", Giggles replied. "If you want to sleep you better do it soon. We're going to be back on the road by sunrise".

"Yeah, like any of us are really going to be able to sleep…" Lifty said dryly. "Am I still driving?"

"Are you up for it?" Giggles asked.

"Probably. I've never driven a van that big before. I could probably figure it out though. What's our game plan after that?"

"Same as that suicide mission Flippy had", Shifty said coldly. "Ride down the road for the rest of our lives until the rain catches up with us. Really great plan. Isn't that right, Petunia?"

"I never said I agreed with Flippy!" Petunia shot back. "And if your plan is so great, why don't you tell us about it instead of bragging over and over that you know what you're doing".

"Even if I had a good plan you wouldn't listen! You're too interested in riding blindly to your death to listen to anyone else!"

"Don't talk to her like that", Lifty said. "Flippy's plan may not have been great but he knew what he was doi-

"Can we all just shut up about Flippy?" Giggles cut in. "Oh my god, just stop! He's gone! It was awful and nobody wants to talk about it, so just shut up! He's dead and we're on our own now!"

"Are there any more Twinkies?" Nutty said as he licked the cream of his lips.

Lifty glared at the squirrel and sprung up from his log. In one sharp swing, he threw his flashlight hard at Nutty's head. What he didn't count on was the squirrel having surprisingly fast reflexes. Nutty dove out of the way just as the flashlight hit the tree behind him and shattered into hundreds of pieces in a burst of electric sparks. Glancing up at the shocked expression on Lifty's face, Nutty could only smile with his mouth full of cake. For a moment it looked like the raccoon was about to tear him apart piece by piece. And it certainly looked that way, especially with the way he was swinging back his fist. But then a single sound rang through the forest that sent chills down their spines.

_THUD!_

It was a gunshot. Not just any gunshot, but a gunshot from a high-powered sniper rifle that shook the entire forest. Their heated argument was ended abruptly as everybody turned toward the direction it had come from. The same direction of the road where they parked the van...

"This is such a mess…." Giggles moaned.

* * *

_Another one down…._

Exhausted and feeling like he was about to pass out, Cuddles quickly reloaded the rifle and stared out across the countryside. He'd gotten another one. A good shot too. In the distance, he could see the creature fall to the ground dead after he'd planted a bullet between its eyes. Sitting on top of the van, the tired rabbit fumbled with the difficult task of reloading the gun. It took awhile, but after a few moments, he was scanning the horizon line again with the scope of the rifle. The infected seemed to be lured to them by scent. In the three hours he'd kept watch, he'd killed at least seven of them.

His shift would be over soon though. That would definitely be a relief. He'd get to go back to camp and get the satisfaction of crawling into a warm sleeping bag. He'd talk to Giggles a little. Then he'd lay his head down on the cold earth, and just like that, he'd be free for the night. The thought was almost enough to make him fall asleep right there. But he didn't. He couldn't....

Drumming his fingers on the rifle, Cuddles smiled. He'd always been a daredevil. In the face of uncertainty, he'd always run in with a bright smile on his face. From skateboarding to waterslides, the only thing that had ever mattered to him was having fun with his friends. Life had always been an adventure and the only thing he wanted to get out of it was a good time. So in the face of danger, it only seemed natural to try and make light of the situation. He'd tried to remain an optimist, he'd tried to keep everyone's spirits up, but even that didn't even seem to be working. Everyone was scared. And it was only getting worse.

_"You can do this_…" he thought. _"This is just another day at home. Everything's perfect. No reason to be scared…"_

His eyes bloodshot and wanting nothing more than to go to sleep, Cuddles tightened his grip on the rifle and carefully watched for any sign of movement.

_Just gotta make it through the night…_

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter was a little short. I felt the need to tone down things a little after the action of the last chapter. The action will be picking up very, very soon. And on the subject of that, I think it's clear by now that there are going to be quite a few deaths in this story. If you want, you can help me out in a review by guessing who you think is going to be the next to die. It helps me a lot because it allows me to not give one character too much screen time and make sure I'm not giving anybody too much special treatment just because they're one of my favorites. Again, you don't have to do this, but it would help me out a lot. Also, thanks a lot for the reviews! :)**


	10. Dark Voices

**Dark Voices**

* * *

Sniffles wiped sweat from his brows as he worked tiredly over the table in the old bunker. It was almost midnight, and soon enough, dawn would arrive with hints of sunlight cascading off the metal walls of the bunker. It was funny how little time mattered when you were working. Hours turned into minutes, minutes turned into seconds, and seconds slowed down into nothingness. Rubbing his temples, he felt like his eyelids were weighing him down. He quickly shook the feeling off. _Gotta stay up…too much pressure on you…..you'll let them all down….never this much pressure before…_

He had no clue why he'd volunteered to be the one to work. Sitting at the table, he couldn't help but feel miserable with the idea of everyone else resting just outside bunker. He really didn't have any idea why he'd decided to stay up. If anything, it could have been that stupid attitude that he had for perfection. If there was a problem in the world, he had to solve it. He had to find the meaning behind everything. Hell, he had to _know_ everything. Life was simple. Questions, research, hypothesis, analysis, experiment, conclusion.

That was when his flaws came in. If there was one flaw that really brought Sniffles down, it was his ego. Even when he was walking down the street, he'd look at complete strangers and feel like he was smarter than them. Despite being abysmal when it came to studying people, he had a stuck-up view to him that had gotten his ass kicked more times than he could remember.

And this was where he knew he should have felt bad. Especially since everyone had judged him as well. He was a nerd. He could admit it. He was one of the biggest nerds the town had to offer and nobody was going to say otherwise. If he wasn't spending his Friday nights doing homework, he was spending them watching the latest sci-fi movie that late night television had to offer. It wasn't like he could help being a nerd either. It was just who he was. And if people expected him to change and go with the flow, they had another thing coming. He was happy with who he was. Maybe not happy, but satisfied.. There hadn't been a day where he'd looked in the mirror and really considered himself. Not just on the outside, but on the inside. Sometimes he pictured himself like he was standing behind a glass wall with the rest of the world on the other side. Even though none of them knew him, they just watched him like a zoo animal and drew conclusions. To all of them, he was a nerd. And that was all there was to it….

Sitting on the chair and somehow not passing out from exhaustion, he kept working. Ever since their incident with Russell, he'd been working diligently to put the puzzle behind the mess together. It would have been a hell of a lot easier if he had some decent tools, but fate could only provide him with so much. After two walks around the tiny island they'd docked on, he'd found the bare minimum of what he needed: an eyedropper and a rather large bubble wand. They weren't the greatest supplies in the world, but they would have to do. With some difficulty, he'd torn out the lenses of his glasses and taped them over each other in a convex crevasse on the hoop of the bubble wand. It was sloppy, especially for a homemade magnifying glass, but he would manage. _Only the best, right?_

Lowering the lens of the magnifying glass to the table, Sniffles grabbed the eye dropper and squirted a drop of the rain onto the table. It had been terrifying walking to the shore and getting a sample, but in the end, it was worth it. The droplet sloshed and bubbled on the table, almost like a marsh that had come alive, but it stayed still long enough for him to get a decent view of it. Squinting with his terrible eyesight from behind the lens, he struggled to see into the very core of the droplet of water. Back home, he'd always liked being behind a microscope. It gave him the uncanny feeling of being able to play God. Especially for someone with esteem issues, this had been the greatest thing in the whole world.

But then when he saw it, he felt his blood run cold. At first it could have been a trick, almost too horrible to be true, but it was there. There was no denying it. The homemade magnifying glass fell from his hands and shattered on the floor. Feeling his jaw drop numbly, Sniffles could only stare at the droplet of water in awe.

"Oh my god…"

* * *

There was another thud from the inside of the many metal bunkers and this more than anything else frightened the three escapees sitting on the island's shore. There hadn't been many of the noises at first, but in the recent hours, they'd increased until they became a frequent drumbeat that had drilled itself into their heads. A short ka-thud followed by a metallic clang. To say the least, it was mind-numbing.

"I can't take this anymore", Toothy moaned. "It's like a jackhammer's in my brain. I swear, if he bangs on the wall one more time I'm going in there and putting him to sleep".

"Don't talk like that", Handy said. "It's not like he's a sick pet. He's a person. And he'd tear you apart before you can even touch him".

Sitting on the shoreline with the briny tide rolling in near their feet, they tried their best to look away from the bunker that they'd locked Russell in. In the beginning, he'd just screamed. That had been the worst part. He'd just screamed like a man possessed with his shrill cries blaring through the metal crannies and gaps of the bunker. For awhile they'd thought it was going to go on forever. But almost abruptly, the screaming had stopped and mellowed out into the sea otter repeatedly tapping the wall and sending an iron clang ringing down to the shore. It felt like he was trying to drive them insane.

"I'm not stupid enough to go in there and fight him myself, you know", Toothy said. "I'm just tired of all of this. I don't see any of this going in the right direction".

"Oh, for real?" Handy laughed. "We're docked on an island in the middle of nowhere with a full-blown annihilation of mankind going on, and you don't think we're going in the right direction?"

"No", Toothy replied calmly. "No, I don't".

He found himself wishing that he'd never left his friends. He may have just been dead weight to them, but now, he was surrounded by strangers and even more of a tagalong then he'd been before. Especially for someone that had always dreamed to go out as a hero instead of a sidekick, it really didn't feel great to be pushed to the side. Turning away from Handy, he gazed out across the lukewarm tide lain out in front of him. With the moonlight shining down on it, he could still make out the orange hint from the rainwater that had gathered in it. Sighing and looking to his other side, he felt a little dazed at the sight of the deer hugging his knees and gazing out at the sea. _Really weird guy. You almost forgot he was there, didn't you asshole?_

"You're on my side, right?" Toothy asked.

Mime turned to him, smiled his big smile, but didn't say a word. When Toothy really took it into perspective, he knew he probably shouldn't have counted on much more of a response. Back at school, Mime had been an outcast in everyone's eyes for the fact of how he was practically silent. There had been times where Toothy had actually tried to be friendly and get to know him, but that usually just seemed to be a dead end.

"Y'know", Handy said suddenly. "Come to think of it, that banging is starting to piss me off too".

"Now you see my point", Toothy said. "If we all run in at once we can definitely take him down. You want me to go in first?"

"If we run in like that, he'll tear us apart like paper and you'll die thinking about how stupid you were. So if you want to do that, go ahead and be my guest. Besides, all we have to do is stay here a little bit longer. We just have to give Sniffles a little more time…."

"It's been five hours", Toothy retorted. "What the hell is he doing in there? He probably failed hours ago and now he's just trying to cover it all up by hiding".

"He hasn't failed yet", Handy said. "He's trying hard…"

"And trying", Toothy replied sadly. "Is the first step to failure. We're sitting duck here just because he's too into his fun-filled, little science experiments to get us out of this mess".

"I don't see you coming up with anything, so you might as well just lock yourself in that bunker with him and get working if you don't have any ideas".

"I never said I was a leader", Toothy said angrily. "I'm a follower. Always have been, always will. I don't like that kind of pressure on m-

"Hey guys!"

The three of them turned to see Sniffles standing in the doorway of the bunker he'd barricaded himself in. The way he was hanging loosely on the door showed that he'd practically charged out there. The lenses of his glasses were ripped off and his face was caked over in perspiration. Gazing over at them, a smile appeared on his crooked face.

"Mission accomplished".

* * *

The four of them hurried back into the musty old bunker and crowded around the table. The overall coldness of the floor and the chattering of rats gave them the feeling that nobody had set foot in the tiny undergrowth in centuries. The whole atmosphere almost gave them the uneasy feeling that they were walking on the ceiling. As they all found a spot around the table, Sniffles quickly climbed into his seat and adjusted his glasses.

"Well, to start off", he began. "I have good news and bad news".

"Good news first", Toothy said.

"I figured out what's in the rain".

"And the bad news?" Handy asked.

He grimaced. "Well, it's not pretty…."

Leaving them with the cryptic remark, the anteater grabbed his magnifying glass and held it steadily over the raindrop in the center of the table. His fingers trembled on the handle for a second, almost not wanting to see what he'd seen again, but he knew it was the only way he was going to put the puzzle together.

"I want you all to take a good look at the water through the lens".

Sniffles handed the magnifying glass off to Toothy who took it with some reluctance. Squinting through it for a second and fully aware that everyone was watching him, he leaned over the table toward the single droplet of rainwater. Leaning in even farther, he studied it at closely as he could. But nothing happened. It was just how he expected a drop of water to look like up close.

"I got nothing", Toothy sighed.

"I wish I had a microscope", Sniffles sighed. "Just look again. And closely this time. You'll see it if you have a little patience…."

A little annoyed but leaning in even father, Toothy concentrated on every motion of the drop of water. Trying to block out the bunker and all the people in it, he looked as hard as he could. It wasn't long before he found it. In the center of the drop, ping-ponging around like one of those old video games gone crazy, was a single spec even smaller than a gnat. It seemed to rock the entire structure of the water, sending ripples through it every second. Although he couldn't discern any emotion from it, he had the feeling it would have been screaming like a maniac if it had a voice.

"What…." Toothy stammered. "What the hell is that?"

"That my friends", Sniffles said. "Is what's turning people into savages the moment it gets into contact with their bloodstream".

The others took turns passing around the magnifying glass. Both of them had similar reactions to Toothy's. Grimacing as he took the double-lens back when Mime was finished with it, Sniffles placed his homemade tool gently on the side of the table. Then he sighed and turned back to the others.

"I've been running tests and there's no denying that it's alive. It's….it's some kind of amoeba. It's like a little germ, only ten times worse. It injects all of these chemicals into your blood. I don't know how in hell it got into the rain, but I do know this. In every single rain drop that's coming down from the sky, there's one of these little bastards inside it. Maybe more for all we know".

"But that's impossible…" Handy said. "I mean, you sound crazy. That's like something out of a movie you find in a bargain bin at the mall. The kind that nobody buys because they don't make any sense…."

"You're right", Sniffles said darkly. "But this isn't a movie. This is reality now".

"And what happens when it gets inside the blood?" Toothy asked.

Sniffles smiled an ugly smile. It seemed like he'd been waiting for that very question. He looked at all them with eyes that seemed like he'd just figured out the meaning of life.

"I guess I'll have to show you".

Surprising everyone, he ducked down from his chair and knelt down on the floor. After a moment of fumbling around on the floor, everyone felt revulsion when he returned with a squirming cellar rat in his hands. Keeping a firm grim on the rodent and not smiling anymore, Sniffles held it firmly against the table. With a sharp scratch of his fingernail, he cut a small wound near the rat's paw. It squeaked, but was powerless to do anything.

"Check this out", Sniffles said.

Picking up the eye dropper again, he sucked up the orange puddle in the center of the table and squirted it into the side of the rat's bloody paw. The rodent squealed and twitched spasmodically, almost like it was throwing some kind of tantrum. But that ended soon when it let out a shrill cry and started to run in circles in the table. With orange, rabid eyes, it snarled at them and started to chase its own tail without any real sense of direction. _Infected…._

"Now quick", Sniffles continued. There was fear in his eyes now. "Watch this…"

Looking unwilling beyond belief, Sniffles grabbed the snarling rodent and quickly tore the lens from the magnifying glass. In one sharp arc, he split open its belly and sent a thin mist of blood spurting out across the table. Sprawling its autopsied rat out on the table like a vivisected angel, Sniffles pointed at its belly with the eyedropper.

"Look…"

They could all see it. Orange fluid was squirting up through the contents of its stomach. For a second it looked like it was going to make it all the way to its head. In fact, it almost looked like that was where it was aiming for. The rain's motions almost made it look alive and it lurched like a tidal wave to make its way up to the rat's brain. But then, drizzling like water seeping through a dam and unable to go on, it all just started to dry out.

"It's trying to crawl up to our heads", Toothy said in awe. "It's eating up our brains".

'Maybe not eating up our brains", Sniffles said. "But it's definitely trying to get up to them".

He shook the twitching rat off the side of the table. It fell with a soft thud to the floor of the bunker. Then he turned to the others.

"These are the facts", Sniffles said softly. "The moment one of these things get inside us, they die and release chemicals into our body that increase adrenaline so much that we resort to our most primal instincts. But the problem is when they land, they die right away. They're not trying to just get into our bloodstream. They just do because when they get in a wound, your blood's they get into. They're trying to crawl up into where they can really get to us".

"Our heads", Handy said uncomfortably.

"Correct", Sniffles continued. "They're not aiming to just infect us and turn us into monsters. They're trying to get up into our brains. I don't know why yet. And I don't even want to think about what would happen if those kind of chemicals got in your brain. I've never seen anything like them before. I mean, I tried it on three different rats and the amoebas kept trying to flow up to the brain each time before they just fizzled out and died. It's almost like those amoebas have a mind of their own. I don't know what's going to happen when someone gets that rain in their head, and quite frankly, I don't want to find out".

"We have to leave", Toothy said suddenly. "Now".

"You were up for fighting a sea otter with a bad case of rabies and now you want to leave?" Handy said with a laugh. "Someone ought to give you a medal".

"No, it's not that. We have to get out of here. I….I just remembered something. I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. Y'know how you just said the rain is trying to get in our heads when it gets in our bodies?"

Sniffles stared. "Yeah…"

"Well", Toothy sighed. "Russell cracked his head open before. And it got right into his head…."

It was almost like this was the cue for the destruction to happen. Without warning, there was a loud bang of somebody knocking on the wall of a bunker. Not just a soft knock, but the loudest one they'd heard since they'd put away Russell. It almost sounded like mountains crumbling in on each other. What followed after was a loud clang of iron from outside that ran through the ears. For a moment it was hard to identify the sound, but with quick realization, they were able to figure it out. It was the sound of a door being knocked off its hinges. _And it was coming from one of the other bunkers that were just outside…_

"Y'know", Handy said uneasily. "Maybe this actually _is_ a good time to leav-

The door that they'd entered through exploded in a blinding flash of searing white metal. Ducking under the table to avoid being hit by the shrapnel, the four of them could only stare in horror as the door crumbled to pieces before their eyes. At first it was too awful, almost too macabre to take in, but it was actually happening. There was no denying the shadowy figure standing in the doorway. Moving its arms with inhuman strength, it was tearing the iron door apart like it was tissue paper. One quick swipe sent a piece of metal flying and imbedding itself into the wall where it stuck there like an archery range.

"OH MY GOD!" Handy screamed. "EVERYONE GET DOWN!"

With the door reduced to a pile of scrapings at the floor, the figure started to walk out of the darkness. Even though they had known who it was before, they couldn't help but feel shocked when Russell walked into view. With an animalistic grimace on his face, he sliced his hook through the air and started walking toward the table.

_But there was something else different about him…._

He wasn't like the rest of the infected that they'd seen back in town. Instead of wandering eyes with no sense of direction, they were determined; they almost seemed like they had a sense of purpose. As he passed over the single light bulb in the center of the room, the effulgence flickered just long enough for them to catch a glimpse of the wound in his head. It wasn't a long glance, but they could clearly see his brains edging out like a cracked-open walnut. Orange citrus ran through the different stems of his mind like the barbs of a many-tentacled octopus.

"IT GOT IN HIS HEAD!" Sniffles screamed. "IT GOT IN HIS HEAD! IT GOT IN HIS HEAD, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! HE WAS JUST WAITING UNTIL WE WERE ALL HERE! HE WAS WAITING UNTIL WE WERE ALL TOGETHER TO DO THIS! GOD DAMN IT!"

And then something very strange happened. Russell stopped in his pace in the center of the room and gazed over at them with his determined eyes. For an awkward second, Toothy had the feeling he was going to eat them. After all, with the way he'd torn the iron hinges off that door, it wouldn't have been that surprising. The otter's mouth opened and a voice that was only half his came out.

"All ashore", Russell croaked.

And then he smiled an ugly grin and ran toward with speed to rival any infected they'd seen before. Swinging out his peg leg hard into the table, he cracked it and reduced it to nothing but sawdust. The four of them screamed as they scattered to different corners of the bunker to escape the chaos. Their feet were torn and cut by the metal shrapnel from the door as they ran, leaving bloody footprints like some kind of mental hedge mage.

Toothy dashed over to the doorway as quickly as he could. They needed to get out. If they stayed all they would be was cannon fodder until he picked them all off. Swearing under his breath, he could only look around and survey the chaos. Handy and Sniffles had run to the back right of the room, hiding the shadows without any clue of what to do. Mime was hiding in the back left, cowering in terror and trying to make himself unseen in the darkness. _You got to do something. You have to be the hero. If you don't we're all going to die in here…._

Toothy was so lost in his inner monologue that he wasn't prepared for the tremendous force that suddenly leveled into his gut. To say the wind was knocked out of him was an understatement. It was a wonder he didn't shatter his entire ribcage the moment Russell charged into him like an angry bull. Toothy was flipped into the air with his arms flailing as he screamed at the top of his lungs. Landing roughly on the hard floor of the bunker, a wave of agony swept through his mouth as one of his teeth grinded into the floor.

"You'll be the first…" Russell said calmly.

Without warning, the sea otter grabbed him by the tail and hoisted him into the air like he weighed nothing. The rain that had gotten into his head hadn't just rendered him superhuman. It had almost evolved him into something greater. Staring into those eyes as he dangled in the air, Toothy saw that they were far past something that mankind could possibly create. Looking into them was like being in a trance. There was no other way to describe it.

"I…." Toothy stammered. "I…."

Russell didn't respond. With that horrible swishing sound in the air, the hook on his hand swung out and prepared to arc into the beaver's chest. However, instead of the feeling of his chest being punctured by a claw, Toothy was met with the feeling of being dropped to the floor as a soft thud cut through the air. When he finally put himself together and managed to look up, he cringed at the sight of orange blood curdling down his side. One of the lens from the magnifying glass was sticking out of his side and being pressed in by none other than Mime. The scene was something that should have been painted with Russell's mouth contorting into a grimace and Mime's hands fingering in the blood. Glaring at the sea otter, the deer quickly slashed the lens across his waist in a deep gash that caused Russell to scream at the top of his lungs. _For a guy who's kind of weird, he just saved your life…_

Glancing up at Mime in confusion, Toothy didn't get much of a response. Pulling out the bloody lens from the howling otter's side, Mime gave him a look that had no other meaning than, "hurry up". Gazing over his shoulder, he caught sight of Handy and Sniffles fleeing toward the exit. There wasn't any more time to waste. Forcing himself up from the floor with whatever strength he had left, Toothy made a break after them with Mime running at his side.

"IS EVERYONE HERE?" Handy called back.

"All accounted for", Sniffles gasped. He sounded almost out of breathe. "I…I can't run like this. Not all the way to the boat…"

"YES YOU CAN!" Handy screamed. "JUST DON'T SLOW DOWN! IS HE COMING, TOOTHY?"

Toothy craned his neck and felt like something was caught in his throat. Being stabbed in the side hadn't seemed to have affected the creature at all. Dusting the stray glass off himself, he glanced over at them with a look that defined rage. He pointed his hook at them like a death sentence.

"YEAH, HE'S COMING!"

"THEN DON'T BE STUPID!" Handy roared. "JUST RUN FOR IT!"

The four of them dashed out of what remained of the bunker's iron door. Jumping out over the doorframe and stepping outside into the break of dawn. Out across the small knoll of canoes and bunkers, the boat taunted them across that long dock like an impossibility. The repetitive thudding sound of a horse race let them know that Russell was hot on their tail. Their feet hit stones and stray canoe oars down the hill as they zigzagged their way between the various bunkers. Near the bottom of the hill, they passed the bunker that Russell had undoubtfully broken out of. The door was lying in even worse ruins than the bunker they'd been in.

As they reached the dock, the shadow of the otter with the hook at their shoulders let them know that Russell was going to catch up. It wasn't just a possibility now. Even if they just slowed for one more second, he would undoubtfully catch up and murder them in cold blood. All they had to do was make it twenty more feet. Thirty at the most. They could make it.

And they almost _did_ make it too.

Halfway down the dock, Sniffles began to slip back from the others. His face a mess of shining sweat and tears, he slowed down into a brisk jog as the others dashed to the boat with their very lives at stake. With his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his arms hanging raggedly at his side, it was clear that he hadn't gotten this much exercise in years. Slowly, he began to slip back and fall shoulder-length with each of them one by one. He actually took the time to do that. Maybe he thought there was a chance that somebody would protect him. But there was no chance at all. Almost stopping completely to a halt, Sniffles clutched his burning heart and tried to mentally massage the charley horse in his leg.

"I can't…." he sobbed. "I just can't…."

But nobody turned back to help him for the simple reason of what was behind him. In one delicate slice, Russell's hook ripped open a hole in his stomach the size of a tennis ball. His rims left over from his glasses went flying through the air and into the water. Howling in pain, he collapsed to his feet a bloody, dying mess as Russell charged down the dock toward the boat.

"GO!" Handy roared. "GO! GO! GO!"

Reaching the hull of the ship with the drawbridge still lowered, the three of them hurried up the splintery planks and onto the ship. As everyone scrambled in panic on the deck, Mime quickly dashed over to the bow of the ship where the anchor was secured. Spinning the crank with all the strength he had, he managed to hoist the heavy, iron weight out of the water where it dripped like a wet sponge and banged noisily against the hull. With the anchor heaved over, they set about the simple task of kicking up the drawbridge. With Russell only inches away, they managed to get to it in time to let the chains raise it back up and slowly block the whole island from view. _Out of sight, out of mind right?_

"The wheel", Handy said quickly. "Mime, go up there and steer us out of here. We're going back to the city…"

"He just tore his stomach open", Toothy stammered. "He….he just tore him open like he was nothing. And he could have done the same to all of us…"

"He could've", Handy said. "But he didn't. Let's just calm down and get out of here knowing we saved ourselves".

"But we have to go back!' Toothy protested. "We have to! Sniffles, we-

"No", Handy said quietly. "He has to save his own hide now. Russell said he didn't want anyone helping anyone and both of you know it. We've already lost two of us and we're not going back just so we can completely wipe ourselves out".

None of them spoke to the moment. Behind the drawbridge, they could hear Russell roaring like an animal and hammering the nails of his fingers at the wood. The silence between them was tense to say the least. They didn't even speak when they heard the sound of Mime switching on the boat's engine and the vessel begin to speed away through the waters. Satisfied that he had finally gotten the upper hand with the kid but feeling more than a little nauseated at the same time, Handy walked to the edge of the ship and rested his hands on the railing. The smell of the salt brine spitting out of the motor almost made him gag. In the distance, the small island they'd docked on began to vanish until it was just a shape on the horizon line. A few moments later, it vanished completely.

Watching it all from the ship's deck, Handy knew they were safe. He just wished the same could have been said for Sniffles…

* * *

He knew it was over. Lying on the dock like some kind of beached whale, Sniffles struggled to control his breathing as the beast took its time walking over to him. His lungs and stomach felt clogged with acid, and every breath took every ounce of will power he had left. Everything was on fire. But he was still alive. _Why the hell was he still alive?_

It shouldn't have been that way. Like everything else in life, he'd approached everything perfectly. He'd experimented, he'd reached a hypothesis, and he'd used logic. He'd used logic, for Christ's sake! What the hell had he done wrong? Things had been going so well. Instead of being a shy nerd who was cast to the side so somebody else could do the talking, he'd been the one up on the pedestal. He'd figured it out and lectured them all in it. He'd done it all right….

_But he was still dying…._

Feeling his stomach pump out blood, Sniffles watched in horror as Russell reached him and stopped. There was something strange about the way he walked. Instead of moving like the other infected, who practically clawed the ground they walked on like animals, he moved with an odd sense of sophistication. At that moment, it was one of the terrifying things he'd ever seen in his life.

"No", Sniffles spat through the blood. "Pleee….Pleee…."

He didn't get any sympathy. With the awful sound of swishing air, the hook came forward and imbedded itself into his windpipe. Gurgling and spitting up blood from his throat, the anteater felt like fire tongs were choking him as he was lifted into the air by the blade in his neck. In no time, his entire body was drenched in red like a sponge from his wound dripping.

"_You knew what you were doing",_ he thought. _"You did everything right. You were better. You solved everything. You used logic, damn it! Why are you her-_

His thoughts were ended instantly when Russell started to swing him around like a rag doll. With the loose skin of his neck flapping in the wind, it all happened too fast for Sniffles to feel any real pain. In one powerful spin, he was sent flying through the air at speed that bordered on superhuman. Flying forward like a launched missile and the wind rattling his gums, he was only airborne for a second before he smashed into the metal wall of the very bunker he'd been working in. A wail of colliding metal ran through the night as his head was crushed to a bloody paste on impact like nothing had even been there. Far beyond dead, he slid down the wall in a red smear of skull, fur and flesh

And standing from the dock, Russell watched it all. Voices were ping-ponging back in forth in his head, debating whether it was right or wrong. Things felt different now. With his humanity slipping away, shallow things like emotions ceased to matter. All that mattered was the thrill of the hunt and the prey that came out of it. All that needed to be felt out of life was the ecstasy of adrenaline from a fresh kill. All he needed was fresh meat. But still, the voices in his head were arguing. And they wouldn't stop.

_You did it right. _

_No, I didn't do it right. I'm a murderer._

_You did do it right. You reacted like any natural hunter would. You should feel proud of yourself._

_I'm not a killer, I'll never be a killer and you don't control me. _

_A killer is a loose term, my friend. _

_You don't control me and you never will!_

The voices were still fighting, and with the memories of his life slipping away, he didn't know what was right or wrong. But that was alright. On that small island with abandoned bunkers, the laws of nature had given birth to something that had evolved past mankind. Something with the intelligence that went forward thousands of generations but still had the adrenaline to tear down an iron door_. And it all came from a drop of water into his head…_

Standing on that dock, the thing that had been Russell roared out into the sunrise in a scream of primal rage.

* * *

**A/N: If there's any questions you still have about the rain, I'll be happy to answer them in a private message as long as it doesn't mean I'll end up spoiling something that happens later. To answer a few questions you probably have though, yes, there is something in it that is alive. Where the rain cloud came from will be explained later in the story. And don't worry, it's not aliens. =P**


	11. Identity of the Heart

**Identity of the Heart**

* * *

Giggles waited until everyone else was asleep before she started walking to the van. Trudging down the dirt path that circled through the forest, she listened to the sounds of the night around her. Crickets chirped out of the trees in a low-static buzzing. The tree's leaves rustled like sandpaper above her. It felt strange that just a few miles away from such a peaceful place, there was a full blown annihilation of mankind going on.

And it scared her. Not that this was anything new though. Ever since she could walk, Giggles had been a girly girl who shrieked at the sight of things like spiders. It only felt commonplace to feel terrified at the idea of something that was actually dangerous being so close. After all, it was what she was accepted to do. She couldn't help being the damsel in distress all the time. It just happened….

For as long as she could remember, her life had been pleasant with lemonade stands, slumber parties and bows in her hair. To some girls this may have been fun, but not Giggles. She knew from a very early age that there was more to life than gossiping about what guys were cute and who was popular. Sure, these were the times when she actually wanted to break out of her shell and find out what life was really about, but that didn't really seem worth it at all. She was a normal girl. Just like the rest of them. And if she wanted to fit in, she had to get exactly what all of the other girls got out of life. _Absolutely nothing._

Giggles sighed as she walked down the trail. It was all so stupid. Not just the road trip from hell she was on, but everything in general. Things really hadn't made sense for a long time. Everything seemed like a lie that hadn't been real since the dawn of time. _And there was only one person in the whole world who had a way of clearing things up…_

As the trail ended at a marked fence, she could see the van sitting out on the road. And he was there too. He looked like he was at the verge of passing out, but he was definitely there. Walking out onto the road with the cold night air whipping at her cheeks, she pulled herself up onto the van's dashboard. For a second she hoped he would notice her and turn around, but he didn't. He just stared out into space with the rifle cradled in his arms. She smiled softly as she pulled herself up beside her boyfriend.

"You're shift's up, Cuddles", Giggles said. "Time to pack up for the night".

"Eight", Cuddles said blankly. "I got eight of em'. It would have been nine but I only scared the last one away. How much time do we have until we clear out?"

"Only a few hours. We're going to play it by ear and wait until the thunder so we can clear out of here before sunrise". She paused. "You might want to sleep a little before we're back on the road".

"No thanks", Cuddles replied brightly. "I like the outdoors. The breeze feels really good tonight, dontcha' think?"

He was smiling, and this was what terrified her more than anything else. He was actually enjoying their little adventure. Shaking her head, she crawled over and rested a hand on his shoulder. He didn't give much of a reaction.

"You're a nervous wreck", Giggles said. "I'm not going to let you do this to yourself. Why don't you put down that gun and we'll walk back to camp together. Then we'll sit in the tent, calm down a little, and just lie down and talk. Just like old times. Doesn't that sound good?"

"We can talk out here", Cuddles said quietly. "And I _really_ can't sleep".

"I found some sleeping pills in the clinic before hell broke loose", Giggles offered. "My mom used them all the time after she finished working the graveyard shift at the hospital and couldn't sleep. If you pop one you'll sleep like a log".

"I've heard too many stories about people overdosing on those things", Cuddles said stubbornly. "I'm staying out here".

There was no point in trying to convince him anymore. Knowing Cuddles, he would just keep making excuses until the sun came up. This had been a problem in their relationship, almost to the point where she'd considered breaking up with him more than once, but there was no denying that he was a good person at heart. He was just too wrapped in his happy, little fantasy world to really give a damn about anything.

"Fine then", Giggles sighed. "We'll stay out here".

"That's good", Cuddles said. "That's really good".

There was a deafening moment of reticence between them for a moment. The sun's rays were peeking over the horizon now, shining a hue of dim orange out across the countryside. It wasn't like the orange of the cloud though. It was an orange where neither of them felt any fear. She snuggled up closer to him, feeling his warmth on her. He seemed to return her feelings this time, nudging against her and wrapping his arm around her.

"Remember that time last summer when we snuck out at midnight and went to catch that movie downtown?" Cuddles asked.

"I try to forget", Giggles said with a shudder. "I swear, when I came home, I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack. She doesn't like you, you know. She was always saying that you were going to be the one that got me killed one day".

Cuddles smirked. "So she thinks I'm an idiot?'

"She thinks you're careless, but same thing I guess. I can't really blame her. She was just watching out for me. I mean, you can call me an accident magnet if you want. I get hurt a lot just because I want to live life for real instead of giggling and going to parties like all those other girls. If I just got a scab on my arm at the playground when I was little, she treated it like a flesh-eating disease".

"You want an adventure", Cuddles said. "A real adventure…"

He said it with a wishful expression on his happy face. He'd said things like this before, and all in all, they frightened Giggles to no end. There were even times where she'd thought he was some kind of sociopath. After all, even when he did something incredibly stupid that got her hurt, she ended up crawling back to him like nothing ever happened. He seemed to have this unnerving kind of control over her. _You're in love. Not by traditional standards, but you're in love…._

"Yeah", Giggles said finally. "I guess I do".

"Well, then that's what you got", Cuddles said with a smile. "The thrill of the open road, the adrenaline pumping through you. What else could you ask for?"

"To be back home safe and sound maybe?" Giggles replied. "I mean, this isn't an adventure, honey. This is hell, and the sooner I got out of here the better".

"I'm just trying to make the best out of a bad situation", Cuddles said. "I mean, there's no denying that things around here are bad. We all have to keep our chins up and come hell or high water, we have to keep on trucking. But I didn't like the way things were going before I left to keep watch. Have they gotten any better?"

"Sort of".

"What do you mean?"

"No one trusts eachother", Giggles sighed. "They're all kind of shaken up. But I think we're getting better..."

"Is everyone asleep?" Cuddles asked.

"They must be by now. I left the tent to go check up on you and they were all pretty much dozing off. Petunia went out like a light. She's such a control freak that she pretty much worked out all her energy until she passed out. The others all fell asleep after". She paused. "Flaky fell asleep with a gun in her hands, Cuddles. A _gun_, for Christ's sake! And none of us did anything about it! She's scared and paranoid and we're not doing anything to help her!"

"Well, you can't really blame her'", Cuddles said as he reloaded his rifle. "I mean, look at yourself. Can you really say that you trust half of the people here?'

She opened her mouth to reply, wanting to say that she would immediately give her life anyone in the group, but no words ended up coming out. He was absolutely right. It was a grim realization, but she had no other choice but to face the facts. When she looked at the group, she pictured herself standing behind a glass wall and watching it all fall apart. In the end, she was powerless to do anything. After all, off the top of her head, she could point out everyone's flaws. Flaky was paranoid, Nutty was frightened out of his mind, Petunia thought she was a leader, Cuddles was living in a dream and Shifty hated everyone without a second thought and dragged his brother down with him. _And what about you? Where's your place in this mess?_

"Well, maybe things will get better once we get back on the road", Giggles said finally. "If we just clear out minds we'll have a fresh slate and then we can start working together".

"Yeah right. Everyone hating each other will make things a hell of a lot easier…"

Giggles glared. "You don't have to be so pessimistic about it".

And then something strange happened. Making a strange groaning noise, he dropped the rifle to the roof of the van and looked over at her with his exhausted, black-lined eyes. The cheery demeanor that had kept him going was gone, and whatever he was feeling on the inside was beginning to come out.

"Damn it Giggles! You don't get it! I'm not trying to be pessimistic! I'm just doing my best to stay alive while everything's falling apart around me. I'm sick and tired of everyone yelling at her. Everyone needs to calm down. Things will be so much easier if everyone just calms down".

"Yeah, but-

And then he kissed her. She was shocked at first, but the feeling quickly passed when she felt his warm lips press against hers. His breathe was slightly sour from the lack of proper hygiene for the last couple of days, but that was the last thing on her mind. Closing her eyes, she tightened her grip on her boyfriend's shoulder as she locked lips with him on top of that van. For a moment, they were a world away from the suffering that was approaching in the form of a rain cloud only miles away from them. But then, just as quickly as he'd kissed her, Cuddles pushed himself away with an awestruck look on his face. It almost looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

"I'm sorry…" he stammered. "I just….it was…."

"No", Giggles said. "It was okay. I liked it…."

Neither of them spoke for a moment. While there had been compulsory love between them a second ago, there was now a strange moment of tension in the air. Giggles had the odd feeling that they were both waiting for the other to say something. But they weren't. In fact, Cuddles was looking away from her, staring out across the wind-whipped countryside as the leaves fluttered on the trees. All of the darkness on the horizon had finally vanished, leaving only the dull glow of the sun.

"I think it's time to go back", Cuddles said quietly. "It's going to be time to leave soon…."

"Promise me you'll sleep in the car?' Giggles pleaded. "I don't want to see you wreck yourself anymore than you have to".

"I'll sleep", Cuddles said.

"And can you make another promise?"

"Depends what it is".

"Promise me nothing's going to happen", Giggles sighed. Back home this would have been an occasion where she would have been sobbing, but since the horrors of the rain began, she'd cried herself dry of tears. "Promise nothing bad's going to happen to me…"

"I can't promise that", Cuddles said. "But I'll stay with you until the end".

Watching the sun's rays stretch out across the early morning, the two lovers climbed down from the van and decided that whatever happened happened.

* * *

He was running. He had no clue where he was going, but he knew was running. The road was stretching out in front of him in a hazy blur, with only the light in his corneas giving him an idea of where he should have been going. He was taking his time, tapping his cane out on the ground in front of him and getting a basic feel of where he was going. He could hear the sound of the clouds thundering behind him, probably a mile away by now, but it gave him no excuse to stop running.

The Mole was blind. Not in his definition, but by medical standards, it was what he was. Although he'd gone through countless surgeries, there was no changing the facts that he would be robbed of his vision for life. This would have gotten him sympathy from most people, but for him, it was only a minor inconvenience. After all, you had six senses. When one was gone, you had the time to develop the other five. Being blind was one of the very last things in his life that had troubled him. This wasn't hard to say, considering very little had actually fazed him in life. It was best to stay mellow.

But if there was one thing that had scarred him besides blindness, it was the horrors that he'd witnessed in the last several hours.

The Mole been working at the airport doing security when things had begun. It had been a normal day at first. It had always seemed nice that the management had offered to give him a job despite his handicap. But in the span of three minutes, things had gone to hell.

The sounds were enough to get him an idea of what was going on. Nightmarish howling. The guttural wrenching of people being clawed to death. Planes being struck by lightning and crashing to the ground The repetitive clatter of the rain gathering puddles on the tarmac outside. Things were getting bad. He couldn't see it, but they were obviously getting bad. So, reacting merely on instinct, he'd run out of the airport. And he hadn't stopped there either. Using his cane to get a sense of where he was going and tapping it against the road, he'd run for hours on end without any real clue of what to do next.

Sure, there had been times during the run where he'd nearly gotten himself killed. First he'd accidentally run into a stop sign. And then there had been that thing that had chased him before he'd lost it by hiding in what he thought was an alleyway. Nothing had stopped him from fleeing for his life though. In about an hour, he was able to guess that he'd finally left the town's border. It was hard to tell, especially with no real way to tell where he was, but the lack of noise and the feeling of stillness in the woods had him the idea that he was safe. That was when he'd finally started walking.

"_You'll survive…" _he thought. _"You can do it. It'll be hard, but you can do it…."_

Trudging along the forest path with his cane guiding the way, The Mole knew he should have been dead. After all, wouldn't it have made sense for there to be a poor blind causality in the whole mess? People wanted to feel sympathy for him, but in the end, all they needed to do was care about themselves. He was perfectly capable of living a normal life and as capable of surviving as they were.

The world was doubting his survival. And he would prove it wrong.

_Just keep running…._

And so he started again.


	12. Something On The Trail

**The Trail to Nowhere**

* * *

Lifty felt like he'd barely rested his head on the earth when he felt the flashlight shine into his eyes. Wincing from the light and more than a little annoyed, he grumbled and rolled to the other side in his sleeping bag. The light flickered off for a second and there was scattered muttering. Then it flickered on again.

"Lifty, wake up".

"G'way…lemme sleep…."

"Dude, wake up".

Swearing under his breath, he turned to the other side again and finally opened his eyes. It should have all come rushing back to him at once, but it really did. It came in quick shots like a slideshow. One shot was running out of the jewelry store with the alarms buzzing. The next was running through alleyways screaming and trying to get back home when the rain hit. Then there was the image of the clinic being burned to the ground like an enormous bonfire. And now, along with everyone else, he'd fallen asleep in that tent full of patchwork sleeping bags and that musty smell everywhere. _Well, things could be worse, right?_

"C'mon man, get up", the voice said. "We're loading up the van now and we're probably going to leave without you soon if you don't get your ass outside".

Turning back around in his sleeping bag, Lifty looked up and saw Shifty poking his head out through the flap of the tent. He was holding the flashlight in his hand, looking like it took all of his strength to carry it. Although the corneas of his eyes were slightly red from lack of sleep and his face was sweaty and tired, it looked like he was trying his best to give his signature smile. He wasn't doing a good job either.

"God damn it, bro", Lifty yawned. "If you're going to wake me up in the middle of the night, at least give me a warning next time. I feel like I'm about to pass out".

"It's not the middle of the night. The sun's almost up".

"No way. I-

"Just put your head down?" Shifty cut in. "That's how it feels for me too. I think I dosed off for about an hour. Sleep in the car if you want, but we have to get back on the road soon. Hurry up and get outside. And you really might want to get a move on because we heard thunder awhile ago".

For a second Lifty was thinking of yelling at him (something that he rarely had the chance to do) or at least getting into a good argument, but the fact that he really wasn't a morning person didn't give him much of an outlook on the situation besides a headache from sleeping on the ground. Crawling outside after his brother, he felt dazed by the sudden sunlight. With the sky a faint blue over the black trees and an orange hue in the distance, he reasoned quickly that it was the early hours; those hazy hours in the morning that he usually chose to sleep through. Everyone else had vanished from the clearing and had probably piled into the van. All that was left was a died-out campfire and a few soda cans. And there was only one other person left at their campsite besides them.

"Sleep well?" Petunia yawned.

She was taking down the girl's tent beside them as they walked out of theirs. For somebody so girly when you first looked at her, Lifty noticed that she was actually pretty tough. She was carrying two of the heavy tent poles over her shoulder and didn't seem to have a problem lifting up the other one. Out of everyone in the group, she was probably the best cut out for the adventure. _That's probably why you've had a crush on her since third grade. Cute girl. Real cute. Too bad she probably wouldn't go for a thief...._

"I feel like I was just run down by a train", Shifty said suddenly. "Sleep could have been better".

"Well, I think you're going to have to get used to it. Because I don't think tonight's going to be any different. I think I've got the tent covered here. Why don't you two go out and help Nutty and Flaky load up the car. A lot of that stuff we dug out of the trunk is heavy and I'm sure they could use some help".

"Are you sure you don't need some help carrying those tents?" Lifty offered. "I mean, they're kind of heavy and-

"I'm a big girl, you know", Petunia said. She wasn't smiling. "I can take care of myself".

The two raccoons left the campsite with the dusk sky towering over them. As they walked down the winding trail with the dark branches looming closer and closer to them, Lifty moved instinctively closer to his brother. It wasn't that he was a wimp or anything, but unlike his brother, he'd always felt family was important. Even if he hadn't had the most functional family in the world (their dad had been a raging alcoholic, their mother was unemployed and the two of them had turned into kleptos) it was still family.

And that was the worst part about being with Shifty. Even if he bossed him around, he couldn't bring himself to be angry at him. After all, practically from birth, he'd been the only person he'd had. The two of them had grown up together, blending into one single, smiling entity with only Shifty's fedora to tell them apart. The two of them had started stealing when they were young, usually getting caught and sent to juvie in the beginning but learning all the ropes as the years went on. Although neither of them would ever admit it, they were inseparable. And even if he bossed him around every dark of the week, he was still the closest thing to a friend that Lifty had ever had in his admittedly short life. After all, it wasn't like his brother was a bad person either. And this was a crying shame in his eyes, because all in all, Shifty really wasn't a bad person. He was over-controlling at times, but that was just because he was frightened of trusting people. And he just didn't realize that a cocky smile and stealing everything in sight wasn't going to get you by in life…

"This doesn't feel real does it?" Lifty asked finally.

"No", Shifty said. "No it doesn't. I wouldn't say it any other day, but I really wish we were home right now".

"Me too, man", Lifty responded. "Me too".

"Hey guys!" a voice called. "Hey guys, up here!"

"God damn it…." Shifty mumbled.

Walking slightly ahead of them in the trail was Cuddles. Covered from head to toe in dirt with a rifle slung over his back, he still greeted them with his cheerful smile that had made everyone in town either love or hate him. Almost everyone in the group had noticed that he was unnaturally unfazed by the situation. The idea of death seemed so far away from his goofy smile.

"Another day out on the road!" Cuddles said brightly. "Who's ready?"

Shifty glared. "Has it occurred to you that someone really needs to kick your ass?"

"Nope", Cuddles said not even the least bit insulted. "Not really. I really don't think I've pissed anyone off here. At least not yet". He paused for a moment. "So, what's up? Any weird dreams?"

"I really hate morning people", Lifty sighed. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm just carrying the rifle back to the van and then we're off. Giggles and I only walked back about an hour ago so I really didn't get a chance to sleep. And you shouldn't put me down like that. I'm just trying to lighten the mood around here".

That was when both of them got a good look at his eyes. Instead of young and full of energy like they always were, they were practically pink from sleep deprivation and the lids half-closed. He looked like hell. And at the same time, he somehow find a way to smile.

"We'll fight about that later", Lifty said. "Am I still driving?"

"Looks like it. I don't think anyone else is up for it".

They only walked a few more minutes before they reached the rusty fence that opened out to the road. Considering how the last time they were there their group had been nine instead of eight, the whole situation couldn't help but a little bit unnerving. It was almost like watching a crime scene investigation. Stepping out through the fence's gate and looking out the road, they immeadidly saw the shadowy, bulky shape of the van parked just where they'd left it. Flaky was sitting against the door with Giggles at her side, carrying a small, blanketed figure in her arms which was assumedly Cub. Nutty was standing by the truck, loading up equipment with an exasperated look on his face.

However, none of that was what made the raccoons stare.

"They're dead…." Lifty said. "I mean, you _really_ got them, didn't you?"

"I got seven", Cuddles said. "Would have been eight but one got away".

There were bodies of infected laid out all over the rolling landscape in front of the van. It was all too easy to close their eyes and picture Cuddles firing away with the rifle whenever one walked up on the horizon line. Some of their heads had been blown off, others shot in the stomach, but it was clear for one thing that all of them were very, very dead.

"That's messed up", Lifty sighed. "That's really messed up".

"No", Shifty said sadly. "It's survival…."

The three of them walked up to the van just as Nutty slammed the trunk. It was clear that his hyperactivity was beginning to kick back in. Twitching as he fumbled with locking the truck, he turned to look at them with tired eyes. The odds were, judging by what they'd seen so far, that his energy was going to burn out just as quickly as it came. His sugar highs usually didn't last long.

"There's no more Twinkies left", Nutty said shortly. There was a hint of frustration in his voice. "And…and he didn't even pack any chocolate. Not one piece of damn chocolate. I searched the whole trunk. There's none".

"We have other problems to worry about right now", Shifty said. "You packed everything?"

"Yeah", Nutty said. He locked the trunk with some difficulty. "Yeah, I did".

"Then we're set. Now all we're doing is waiting on Petunia".

"Then what?" Flaky asked. It didn't seem like a question. "What's after that?"

"Well, we could find some towns", Lifty answered hopefully. "There's got to be some hick trailer park somewhere on this road. And we could get more people".

"Do you know what they advertise Happy Tree as?" Cuddles scoffed. "I looked through one of the brochures in city hall during that field trip. It's the same kind they give out to real estate agents. They call it, "a peaceful town lost in acres upon acres of luscious forest'. But, y'know, with that out of the way I'd say civilization is right around the corner. Why don't you get on trucking?"

"No need to be a jerk about it", Giggles snapped. "Sorry, he's just a little tired. It's been a really long night…"

"Too long", Cuddles sighed. "I think I'm really getting tired now that you mention it. How'd you guys make it through the nigh-

"We're going nowhere!"

The voice was so sudden that it nearly made everyone jump out of their skin. Even Cub began bawling as Flaky rocked him back and forth and tried to comfort him. At the newfound voice, every eye by the van turned to Nutty.

His face that had been frustrated before now looked beyond annoyed. Back in town, before things had gone bad, he had rarely been seen unhappy. While his hyperactivity made him fairly annoying once in a while, he was ultimately a good person who most people got along with. But ever since the rain had hit, things had been different. The pressure of the situation was beginning to weigh in on him even more than the others for some reason. Out of everyone, he seemed the most afraid of death.

He looked around for a second, startled that he was suddenly in the spotlight. For a brief moment a slight smile even appeared on his face. But then that vanished and was replaced by complete frustration.

"What are we doing out here?" he yelled. "What's this accomplishing? We're just going to keep heading down the road until we die! This is hopeless! It's a mess! It's…It's…

"It's what?"

It was Petunia. She was walking out of the fence's gate with the tent poles slung over her back. Although her expression wasn't necessarily cold, she looked relatively interested in proving a point. More than anything, she actually looked entertained.

"Seriously Nutty", she said. "Tell me what it is".

"It's stupid!" he screamed. "It's just stupid! I could leave, you know! I could leave any second and all of you are just going to be alone here and be picked off like flies. I can't take this anymore! I've reached my breaking point, all right? I can't stand all of this if I know we're all just going to end up dead. And I can't stand people like you Cuddles; people who think everything's going to be okay. Want to know why? Because it's not! You're an idiot! You're-

Nutty's words were cut off by a fist connecting with the front of his face. His whole body twirled for a second before collapsing into the side of the van in a daze. Bringing his fingers up to his nose, he brought them back and stared down in shock at the warm, red blood trickling down it. Instead of watching him, everyone turned to see one of the last people in the group they would have expected to hurt anyone.

"You…you hit me!" Nutty yelped.

"I'm sorry", Giggles sighed. "But I think we can all say you had that coming. And you had no right to talk about him like that. Get up before or I'll do it again. Come on everyone, let's get a move on".

* * *

For a second he thought he could keep it all down. Maybe if he breathed slowly, control would come rushing back and that rising feeling in his stomach would go away. But it didn't. Hunched over in the middle of the trail and feeling like he'd just been hit by a truck, The Mole vomited and sent pasty, white food dripping down to the muddy ground.

He'd run through a lot. He'd run through that cramp, he'd even managed to run through that charley horse in his left leg, but he couldn't run through the fact that he felt like he was going to throw up at any second. He'd tried to ignore, but unfortunately, it had gotten the better of him. He'd run himself dry.

Trying to ignore the overpowering stench of his own vomit, The Mole did the best to get a sense of his surroundings. At least he was sure he was in the forest. There was no mistaking the whistling of the wind through the leaves and the sour smell the rain had left on them before it had drifted further up north.

The wind wouldn't stop whistling. It was mocking him, almost doubting him like the rest of them. Bent over in the middle of the path, The Mole grimaced and leant over on his cane for support. All his life, he'd had to dealt with people judging him because he was blind. The fact that he was handicapped seemed to put a giant, "feel sorry for me", sticker on his face. He hated it, especially the concerned looks he was sure he got whenever he walked down the street. Even though he couldn't see them, at least he could hear them. When he walked down the street with his cane tapping on the sidewalk, he could hear them whispering as he passed. Them doubting him as a person just because of a few defects at birth was awful.

But when it happened, he would smile, turn around and tell them that he wasn't blind, thank you very much. He was still perfectly aware of the world around him and just as capable of living a normal, healthy life. If you looked at it that way, he definitely wasn't blind at all. But on the other hand, there was no ignoring the fact that he couldn't see.

The Mole's stomach was rising again. Grimacing and feeling the stench already coming out, The Mole opened his mouth and threw up.

And the whole time he was completely unaware of what was eyeing him from the woods.

* * *

It watched its prey carefully. Gazing out at the trail, he mentally gauged the short distance it would be to run forward and strike. In one hand he drummed his finger against a loose branch that was drooping down. In the other, the hooked one, he scraped it over and over again into the tree's bark, getting a delicate hissing sound each time.

The island hadn't been that hard to leave. Only a few hours ago the acidic, orange waters would have burned him, probably destroyed his sanity, but that didn't matter now. Besides, his sanity was already destroyed anyway. So he'd wadded through the waters and gotten to the mainland. There wasn't going to be any hunts out on the open water, and all in all, he wasn't as thrilled about the great blue sea as he'd been before.

And besides, he couldn't even see blue anymore in the first place. Almost like hued contacts, everything had a hint of orange to it.

Looking out at the mole hunched over in the trail, a smile spread across his face. It would be an easy fight. The philosophies of hunters was to be the Venus fly trap and wait for the prey to come to you. And that was exactly why he'd been following the running figure ever since he'd seen him dashing through the forest. It was all instinct now. Instinct was good of course, but it didn't matter in the slightest when it came to what laid out on the open road. Survival of the fittest. Kill or be killed. A few hours ago he would have looked at things differently, as actual beings instead of targets for murder, but his outlook had changed. The voices. They were the ones that were changing him.

_Go out and get him. _

_No, I'm done, I don't want to hurt anyone else. Please get out._

_Go out there and get him. He's weak. You'll like the feeling of it. You love it last time. You love the feeling of a good hunt. You're better than the rest of them. Go out and do what you do best._

_I'm not better. My head hurts. Get out._

The voice didn't. So Russell walked out of the woods.

* * *

The Mole never saw the attack coming. Too busy spitting up vomit in the middle of the trail, he wasn't prepared for the sound of rapid footsteps rushing forward, almost like the clattering sound horses made at a racetrack. It didn't last for long though. More confused than frightened, he didn't even have time to react when the hook sliced itself into his shoulder. Howling out in agony, he fell to the trail as puddles of warm blood started to drip down his side. His head nudging to the side spasmodically, a wave of pain swept through him when he felt something as hard as bedrock. _Your collar bone…._

What had been confusion a second ago suddenly became complete shock.

Rolling to the side, he moved out of the way just in time to avoid another swing from the hook. He listened to the sound of it imbedding far into the ground, much farther than any hook should have gone. From just the sheer impact of it, his sunglasses went flying off his face. He didn't even think of trying to find them.

He should have been terrified and he knew it. The thing was obviously a monster and it obviously wanted to kill him. With his wound throbbing, he felt his shock melting away to sheer anger. If anything, he found himself getting more determined than he ever had in his life. _This is it._ _Make it through this. You have to make it through…._

Cradling his shoulder, he tried to steady himself up from the ground and didn't even get a chance. Before he knew it, he was airborne. Almost like he'd been seized by a pair of powerful horns, the creature swung him up from the ground, dug under his armpit and hurled him into the air. His body cart wheeled wildly through the morning fog rising over the trail, and for an odd second, he had the feeling he was going to be stuck in the air forever. He even felt that nasty roller-coaster tingle of free fall. But then the flight ended just as quickly as it begun. Flung sideways from the trail, he collided into a tree and started to roll down in a crumbled heap with his walking cane at his side.

"You'll be the second".

The voice was menacing and guttural, and worst of all, it was approaching him fast. He heard the awful slice of the hook cutting through the air, almost like he was trying to make a point. Dazed and trying to figure out if he was upside down or not, The Mole made a very quick decision. It was a fifty-fifty shot; one side was life and the other was death. He was taking a risk, but the way things were going, it was definitely worth a shot. _You're getting out of this. Don't hold back._

Hopping up from the ground and holding his cane forward like a battle ram, The Mole ran forward and swung it without any sense of direction. He only ended up swatting at air and even felt another slice of the claw cutting through the air, getting even closer. A crunching sound of glass at his feet made him cringe. _At least you found your glasses. _Running like a hunchback from the blood loss in his shoulder, The Mole ran and swung.

And he got a direct hit too.

Although he couldn't see it, the blunt end of the cane burst directly through Russell's empty eye socket. There was a bone-shattering crush as it dug even deeper, widening the gap where his eye should have been like an expert stone carver. There was a startled howl, but amazingly enough, there was no scream. _No agony. No pain. Jesus, is this guy made of iron or something?_

With the small amount of energy he had left, The Mole thrusted the cane deep into the confines of Russell's skull. He howled in that indifferent scream again, more furious at being stopped in his path than being hurt. And then, with chippings of bone and rain water dripping out in small leaks, he thrusted the cane out stepped back. The odds had been in his favor this time. It didn't happen very often, but he knew from experience that luck was a strange thing. It only bent for certain people. And somehow, he'd put it in his favor.

"_You have the league now",_ The Mole thought quickly. _"and you who's going to make it work…"_

There was no time to waste. Running away from the stunned sea otter, he took off down the road northbound. Arterial blood was pumping out from his shoulder, and by the feel of it, his collarbone had been banged up pretty badly. The complete shock of it seemed to have a way of soothing the pain. It still hurt, but if he tried just hard enough, he would be able to convince himself it was manageable. As he ran, he started screaming. Not just for the pain he was falling but everything that had gone on in the last twenty-four hours. The chaos. The destruction. The death. _You're not blind man, you just can't see._

The Mole ran and didn't look back.

* * *

Watching his prey run down the road, the creature fingered with his messy eye socket and smiled. The human part of him was screaming in agony from the pain, but the other side didn't mind. To the evolved side of him, pain was only a minor inconvenience. It could definitely be dealt with.

Wrenching back his head, he poured a good amount of rainwater out of his head where it dropped out like a water funnel. He'd lost a good kill, but anything that had been lost could be found. The voices were telling him that. They were much more active now, and soon enough, they would take over completely and the part of the sea otter still clinging to his sanity would be gone forever. When that happened, things would get a lot easier. _A whole lot easier._

The thing that had been Russell walked down that lonely stretch of road with his hook swinging at his side.

* * *

**A/N: I was going to try for another update this week, but it looks like it's not going to happen since I'm going to be on vacation until Sunday. Sorry. :(**


	13. Dreams and Ramblings

**Dreams and Ramblings**

* * *

A gunshot.

It rattled the boat's deck to the core. The noise had become routine to them, almost as natural as the soft crashing waves below them. In the grand scheme of things it had almost become an extension, run-of-the-mill to the new world that they'd been thrown into. The same went for the whirring, jangling sound of reloading after the shot.

"How many does that make now?" Toothy asked as he checked the rifle.

"Who's counting?" Handy said. He almost sounded bored. "This isn't a game. Just hold em' off".

"I'll answer my own question then", Toothy shot back coldly. "It makes eight. And I have to say, 'hold em' off' is probably the best advice I've ever heard in my life".

"Chill out", Handy replied. "Everyone's scared, you know. You're not any different. And you're piss-poor at this sarcasm thing you're trying to do by the way…"

"Just be quiet", Toothy said harshly as he angled the rifle again. "I'm trying to get a clear shot".

He was sitting up on the rai**l**ing on the ship's deck with the rifle he'd found in the hull. Perched on his knees and staring out with eagle's eyes, he shut one eye and angled out toward the harbor below them. The ship, probably the only sign of life for miles, was docked back at the harbor in Happy Tree. Anchored into the surf it bobbed noisily against the dock, swishing up and down with the waves crashing in and coming dangerously close to crashing into the dock. It didn't hit it though. It stayed stubbornly anchored in the water with its chains rattling under them. The sounds all blended together into rhythms until the gunshots and rattling were almost white noise.

They were sitting in a small semi-circle on the ship's bow. Toothy was sitting up on the boat's ledge like a sniper's seat, aiming out across the dock below them with the rifle and looking like he hadn't slept in years. Handy was straddled out on his back on the deck, staring up at the sky and really not taking in much of anything. Sitting beside him was Mime, silent and staring off into space as usual. Up until Toothy's gunshot, they hadn't exchanged a single word to one another since leaving the island.

Silence was golden sometimes. And if there was one person that knew this, it was Mime. Silence had not only been his way of dealing with things that troubled him, but his way of distancing himself from reality. He hadn't talked in years, and so far, it had really never been something that troubled him When people talked, there was really too much to deal with. Words could mean so many things and in the end, they always found a way to hurt people. Almost every war in history - if you really thought about it - had been started with words. His eternal vow of silence was one of the last things in life he regretted. He'd even discovered recently that there was a medical term for people like him: _voluntarily mute._

And that was probably the best way to describe it too.

Shuddering and hugging his knees, Mime squinted through the barred railings of the ship and gazed down at the boardwalk that lay only ten feet up from the water. As of now – and if his counting was correct - there were twenty corpses sprawled out on the boardwalk. Some of them had wounds in their heads, others their limbs, but most had just had their chests completely obliterated. They were all infected though. Every single one. In the middle of the mess, a live one was wandering around the pile of corpses like it was some kind of maze. It was a squirrel, walking with a noticeable limp and howling in a strange guttural cry. If it was in any pain though, it didn't last, because in roughly a second it joined the other. Pulling the trigger of the rifle, Toothy shot off another blare of gunfire and a red hole appeared in the center of the squirrel's head. A thick mist of blood and brains sprayed out from hole and it fell and landed with its arms arching off like an outstretched scarecrow. A cloud of gun smoke hazed up the air above the ship's deck.

"That's how you do it", Toothy said as he checked his rifle again. "That's exactly how you do it…"

Mime turned away with a shudder, pretending that he hadn't seen the murder at all. It wasn't really that hard, because with the ways things were going, he'd pretty much kidded himself into thinking the whole disaster was some kind of illusion. Nobody was really getting hurt. There wasn't a complete meltdown of society going on. If he pretended hard enough, the whole thing would just go away and things would end up the way they were again. It was just like the words he pretended not to hear. Being a circus performer made him pretty good at pretending when he needed to be, but when he really thought about it, this was just too much. _You can't ignore this. You really can't. It has to be real. There's way too much evil in this to be fake…._

He'd known something was wrong the moment he got up the day before. The sky had been grainy when he awoke, a cloudy gray that was leftover from the flood of storms that Happy Tree had been having since spring began. And like he tended to, he'd woken up with a headache. Being mute was by choice, but being an insomniac was a nuisance that he'd endured since he was little. His doctor had recently prescribed some kind of white noise treatment to drone out his insomnia, but it hadn't really worked. He just sat up all night sometimes thinking – and for someone who didn't talk, he liked to think that he was a pretty good thinker. Sometimes he thought about people, other times he thought about talking, but most of all, he just thought about the world. Sometimes his nighttime meandered so much that they stopped making sense by midnight. He pictured his head in space sometimes, stars and planets orbiting around it like clockwork and oblivious to reality. _Nighttime rambling, that's what they always used to call it. God, I'm scared…_

And so like every day, he'd gotten up that morning and started getting ready for his weekend job at the fairgrounds. Forcing a quick breakfast down his throat, he'd left his house at around five and started jogging uptown. Halfway there he'd started feeling anxious, and when he was a block away from the carnival, he ended up feeling like he was about to go into shock. Something was going to happen. Not necessarily bad, but things were definitely going to be changing. _But what?_

As it turned out, he didn't need to wait long to get an answer. The rain hit at around the same time they usually started closing up the fairgrounds; the time when he finished off his shift by handing out tacky balloons to kids with a smile plastered on his face. And if there was one thing that he prided himself on, it was that his smile was completely genuine. He really did get a warm feeling out of handing out balloons to kids, and with the way things were going in the world, he knew that meant a lot.

And then it happened. The light in the fairgrounds dimmed, rain began to pour and all hell broke loose. There was suddenly a strange hue of orange in the sky above the big top in front of him, and people were running and shrieking at the feeling of acidic rain burning their skin. The colorful balloons he had been holding in his hand started popping as the raindrops hit them, vanishing one by one and taking a stab at his sanity every time. Some people who were running looked okay. Others looked terrified. But then there was the separate group: the people that had changed. They were running in a mad shamble across the flat clearing of the fairgrounds, drenched by rain and clawing at the air with eyes that practically glowed orange. Some of them were attacking people. Some of them were even attacking children who couldn't fight back. _The same kids you gave those balloons too……_

In the midst of the chaos, the big top somehow came toppling down. One of the metal poles keeping it up sprung out of the ribboned fabric, the whole thing suddenly rippling like an enormous blanket before falling apart completely. Mime stood there with a hand of balloon strings, shocked as he watch the enormous tent descend to the ground. _And it was all real. There's so much pain. It's just gotta be, there's no way it can't be real…._

He hadn't known what to do. So he'd just started running…

"Mime, can I talk to you?"

He was snapped out of his thoughts. For a moment he'd almost forgotten that he was on the boat. He half-expected to hear Toothy firing his rifle, but he seemed to be reloading again. Looking around in a daze, he finally locked eyes with the person who was sitting beside him. Handy was eyeing him closely; the kind of look a parent gave before going into an in-depth talk on something mundane. Even if was strange when you looked at the situation, Handy really had become the only figure they could look up to. Part of it was the fact that he was the oldest next to Russell, but besides that, it was just the simple fact that he hadn't really lost his cool yet.

"I want to talk to you", Handy said again. He was quieter this time "Now. Away from him".

And almost to demonstrate his point, Toothy fired off another shot and started swearing off the top of his lungs. Giving a quick nod to Handy and making sure that the beaver perched on the railing still had his back turned, he quietly stood up and walked over across the tiled-metal flooring that cut off from the wooden deck. Taking one last look back to make sure he wasn't watching, they ducked behind the boxed structure that served as the entrance to the hull beneath the ship. Handy looked at him like he was trying to size him up for a second – and then he spoke:

"So I heard you don't talk, right?"

Mime shrugged.

"Figures", Handy sighed. "Anyway, I wanted to talk this over with you. Toothy's too scared to listen to anyone, and with the way things are going, all he is right now is another body to protect. He's not using his head. I'd rather drill the idea over with you first – but I should probably get something out of the way right now. Are you deaf and dumb?"

It was a stupid question. He'd shrugged, and in his book, that was more than enough of a response to show that he'd understood him perfectly. There was never any point in arguing though. Smiling, Mime shook his head and patted his hands over his ears in cupped folds. With a quick stare at the beaver for a second, he then nodded and started shaking his head up and down. With years of practice as a circus mime, the words couldn't have been clearer. _I can hear just fine._

"So you're not deaf?"

Mime nodded again.

"You just don't talk?"

He nodded a third time and smiled, showing him that he'd finally gotten his facts straight.

"Funny how we ended up together, huh?" Handy laughed. "An amputee and a mute. Things couldn't be better, huh? Of course, that's not saying they could be much worse either. We're in a pretty sticky situation, aren't we?"

Mime had the strange feeling that Handy was waiting for him to respond. Maybe he still thought that he could get him to talk if he tried hard enough – and that wasn't the case. He simply shrugged again and hoped it was enough of an answer. The smirk on Handy's face was unreadable to him, so as far as a satisfied response went, he felt their conversation was pretty much a lost cause now. _An amputee and a mute. That was what he'd said; they were an amputee and a mute. _Just two handicaps stuck together by circumstance; even if things started looking up, what use could they be for each other?

"Anyway", Handy continued. "I think we have to start figuring out what we're going to do. We need a game plan, you know? Right now we're just sitting duck. That's good for awhile, but soon enough, things are just going to collapse on us. Look at Toothy over there. He's not shooting those things because he's the badass he thinks he is. He's just shooting em' because he's scared. Do you get it?"

He felt like shrugging again but he didn't. He just kind of stood there feeling more awkward than he ever had in his life.

"Well, I hope you do. We're going to have to clear out of here soon, and we need a place to go. Either way means we're road kill when you really think about it. If we stay here – where the rain already hit – we're going to have to deal with all of the infected that it left behind. We could head south, but as far as we know, that's where Russell is, and unless we want to end up like Sniffles, I really don't think we should head that way . And then there's the third option…."

Feeling like he was finally catching on, Mime stared and pointed out toward the direction of the city out in front of them. It was strange, but if there was one thing he'd always been good at, it was his sense of direction.

"That's right", Handy said. "We could head north. Of course, there's definitely a few flaws in that too. That's the direction the rain went, and sooner or later, we might have to cross through the storm. But once we get ahead, we're safe. We'll be where the rain hasn't even hit yet – we'll be one whole step ahead. And right now, I think that's our best bet. You in?"

The question had come so suddenly that it caught him off-guard. He knew they would have to do it eventually, but leaving the city really did make everything much more real. They weren't just leaving a place where society had fallen apart – they were leaving what had once been their home. Just from experience alone, Mime knew there were three things in life that you could count on. You could count on people arguing over stupid things, you could count on your family even when they weren't around anymore, and most of all, you could count on your home. Even the loneliest of drifters felt safe with a roof over their head. It was a basic human instinct. And just the thought of leaving the place that had been his shelter for almost his entire life was pretty damn hard to deal with. He must have pondered the idea for awhile, because after a moment of grim silence, Handy spoke again:

"Let me put it this way", the beaver said softly. "I know it might be weird, but think about how bad this city is going to smell in a few days. With summer around the corner, it's getting warmer. Imagine all of those corpses sitting out here and baking in the sun until they rot. This isn't our home anymore and there's no way we can stay here forever. That's just a death wish". He paused. "So what do you say?"

He didn't say anything. But finally, with a grimace, he nodded and motioned his fingers toward his chest. After that he held out his hands in a tight grasp like he was squeezing a doorknob, tightening one and turning the other like he was operating a crank. Once again, the words couldn't have been clearer. _I'm in. Want me to take out the anchor?_

"You're pretty good at that", Handy said with a grin. "I bet you never have a problem getting anyone to understand you, do ya?"

Mime grinned back but didn't say anything.

"Whatever", Handy laughed back. "I should probably just stop talking to you at this rate anyway. Make sure the coast is clear for any infected out on the boardwalk. I think we're safe since Toothy probably took out most of them. Make sure he gets his ass off that railing and starts getting ready to move out. If he complains, just ignore him. We're getting off this boat. Go off and raise the drawbridge".

He walked away with his construction helmet gleaming in the sunlight in white blotches. The moment he turned his head, Mime's smile vanished completely. Part of him felt like an idiot for not arguing, but the other half, the part that seemed to control his life sometimes, just brushed it off and didn't make much of it. His thoughts were coming to him simple and clear. _Looks like we're getting off the boat. Maybe something good will happen. Who knows?_

Mime walked out across the deck and listened to the sound of the gulls cawing out above them. With sunlight streaking over the serrated planks and every surface of the boat shining out in the morning, Mime felt at peace with the world for a second. Things were getting bad, but in his philosophy, they couldn't get much worse. Taking a quick look out at the boardwalk port that they'd docked the ship into, Mime took a quick head count. _No infected. Lots of bodies, but no infected. _Walking past Toothy who still seemed completely intent on getting a clear shot, he hurried over to the winded pulley-system that made up the drawbridge crank. Heaving all of his strength into it, he started bringing down the bridge slowly, turning the lever and listening to that sound of splintering wood that choked out of it. The sound was probably what made Toothy finally turn from his post. More than a little confused, he look at Mime like he was the mute one, caught between words and having absolutely no clue what to say. And then he spoke:

"So what, we're heading north?" he called out.

Glancing up at Toothy as he worked, Mime motioned toward the lowering drawbridge and pointed a finger north with his free hand. He even tried to smile. This unfortunately didn't seem to be enough of an answer.

Toothy glared. "Hey, don't point asshole! I'm talking to you!"

Shaking his head and far more amused than angry, Mime tried to hide his grin as he lowered the bridge down to the talk. Talking, after all, was overrated.

* * *

At around noon that very day, Shifty woke up from one hell of a dream.

The dream was vague when it came down to it, and for some reason, it was almost impossible to see. It had taken him awhile to figure out that he was in the apartment that he'd called his home up until the day before. His vision was a little hazy, but the nauseating scent of whisky bottles and something rotting in the pantry made it pretty apparent that he was in his kitchen. Normally he would have felt comforted with the idea of being home, but he didn't. He felt small for some reason. Insignificant.

The floor was greasy and wet. The dish washer in the corner was leaking, but his father's laziness in getting off his ass to call a repairman had led to it never being fixed. Stepping over the puddles and dazed under the dimmed fluorescent lightning, he ended up slipping halfway across and fell flat on his back. Even if it was dream, he would recall later that he had felt a growing numbness in the back of his head, almost like he had really felt the pain of the fall. _Smooth man, really smooth…._

A cockroach was running around the remains of a bottle. Shifty lay on the floor, watching it circle around the broken glass with its alien-looking antennas. The cockroach looked over at him, almost surveying him and waiting for him to do something. When nothing happened, it scurried away frantically and dug itself behind the chipping wall plaster in the corner. Shifty felt a wave of revulsion.

It really was hard to figure out if the apartment was a good place or not. It was a home – or at least a roof over his head – but there hadn't been any real feeling in it. It wasn't a place for family. It was just a place for him and his brother to crash in between all the days they spent stealing and wasting their lives away outside. It hadn't been a bad life. After all, he'd learned to take care of himself at a very early age and being a thief was definitely fun. But there were so many other things he knew he'd missed out on. In school, he had no friends; he only had people that were willing to back him up out of fear. The closest thing he had ever really had to a companion was his brother, and half of the time, he treated him more like a lackey who could do his dirty work. Shifty pictured himself walking into a room with that cocky grin on his face, alienating everyone from the truth that the smile was - like so many other things in his admittedly short life – a great big lie. He could admit it now. Shifty absolutely hated who he was. _And why the hell are you thinking about all of this when you're laying on your kitchen floor?_

There was suddenly a sound like a waterfall crashing into his skin. Turning his head up toward the counter, he felt his jaw drop. A gout of orange water had belched out of the dishwasher. Spitting and blubbering up like hundreds of water-funnels, it flooded the kitchen in a second and started to pour out into the living room. Within a second, his nose was clogged and he was gagging on the water that was already passing over his head. Coughing, he sat up immeadidly and realized with wild panic that the water had already risen up to his waist. A second later it was up to his neck. He tried to stay afloat, gurgling and praying he wouldn't die in his very own kitchen, but there was no resisting the newfound current.

Cringing from the acidy taste of the water, Shifty was swept out into the living room. Tumbling through the rapids and racking his head hard against the doorway, he tumbled out through the churning whirlpools that the washer was still bellowing out. Swinging his arms out, he felt around, desperate for anything that could stop him from drowning in the comfort of his own living room. He got a grip on the lampshade, but it was a quick and slippery one, and before he knew it, he was being swept off into the corner with the water pummeling him in the face and rendering him immobile.

It was there, swatting his hands and struggling to breathe through the crashing sea of rain, that he saw it. He started to scream.

There were corpses floating everywhere. Some of them were bloody, others were swollen like they had drowned, but they all had those same cold eyes that stared up at the ceiling. Most of them were random faces – mostly dead faces he'd seen on the road since their journey as refugees began – but some of them were much worse. Cuddles was bobbing there obscenely, his intestines coiling out of his belly and floating out in front of him like water snakes. Flaky was a little further off, her face squashed in like a bug and her body flattened like a pancake. But the closest to him was Flippy. Even though his body was now a scourged and burned skeleton, he was still wearing his tattered army uniform like a patriotic burial. He floated around for a moment before drifting off finally into the corner beside a squirrel whose arm had been ripped off.

"_I didn't ask for this",_ Shifty's mind screamed at him. He felt like he was going insane, but he didn't care anymore. _"I didn't ask for this, so why am I here? Why are we all here if we didn't ask for this?"_

The water was rising now and Shifty found himself rising off the ground and swimming to stay afloat. With furniture and bodies bobbing around him like a polluted ocean, he felt like it was a wonder that he hadn't thrown up yet. Opening his eyes and now completely submerged underwater, he shook off the feeling of the rainwater burning his pupils. His fingers went instinctively for his throat and he felt the need to claw at it, desperate for one last breathe that must have still been caught in there. But it didn't work. _Come on Shifty, this can't be real. Just wake up. You can do it. Wakeupwakeupwakeup….._

There was suddenly a sound of shattering glass. Dazed and hardly able to breathe, Shifty was so confused that he first looked up at the ceiling that was now just a few inches above him. Then, looking down into the water, he saw what had happened. Unable to take the pressure of the water anymore, one of the windows had given in and shattered. Like a dam from hell, all the water was being sucked outside in a swirling cyclone. He struggled to keep hold, clawing into the wallpaper for dear life and feeling his fingernails burn from his attempts, but it was no use. Screaming and feeling his lungs fill up with water, Shifty was sucked out of his apartment window like a giant, funneling drain.

The sudden breathe of air was a relief. The view when he got outside wasn't. With gravity saying otherwise, he hung in the air for a horrible moment, shocked and staring out at the skyline of downtown Happy Tree. He half expected to plummet and feel that nasty stomach-lurch of free-fall. It only made sense, especially since he lived on the third-story of his apartment building. But instead, his legs locked in the air and he ended up flying with his arms outstretched toward the sky. Gazing down, he watched as the torrent of rain carried out furniture and bodies into the long fall to the pavement below. A couch hit the sidewalk with a loud thud, breaking in half just as a swollen body landed on top of it. _This is all real. It's all so real…._

Feeling feather-light and at the verge of throwing up, he flew unwillingly down his street and drifted in and out between alleyways. Occasionally he would reach a dead end and float back. Feeling almost paralyzed without any control of where to go, he could only watch as he weaved down the streets of his hometown. He passed a few childhood landmarks. The school that he'd attended uptown. The jewelry store they'd robbed a few days before. Happy Burger. The water park that was closed for the season.

It wasn't long before Happy Tree started to melt away, going from suburban, country town to a rural desert road. He started speeding up, his flight going from a slow cruise to the path of a speeding bullet. The road tracks on the ground made it clear that it was the very road that they'd driven down with the van. Light vanished. Darkness swirled in. Shifty felt on the verge of throwing up.

That was when his flight came to an abrupt halt.

There was a figure standing in the middle of the road with a hook. It smiled and showed a mouth full of yellowed teeth. He couldn't get a good look at his shadowed face besides that. But he did see the present that he was holding by his hook. It was his brother's head – imbedded there just as simply as you would hook clothes on a coat hanger. Lifty's tongue was slurring out of his mouth and blubbering out orange rainwater.

Shifty screamed. And then, almost mercifully, he was allowed to escape the nightmare.

* * *

He woke up in the car seat immeadidly, sweating and feeling like he was on the verge of a heart attack. He looked around quickly, gathering back his senses and getting the quick realization that he was in the van. His seat rocked and moved with the rhythm of the road. Wiping the thin line of drool from his mouth, he shuddered and look to his side.

His brother was driving with his hand held loosely on the wheel. Just the picture brought back memories. Back when they were little, there'd been a used car-lot down the street where the owner had always let them in to hang out on the weekends. Despite the fact that he was running an illegal business and he would get caught and shut down a few years later, he had been on good terms with the raccoons and had let them into his enormous garage to drive around the old banged-up cars that he didn't have any use for anymore. Shifty had been discouraged to come after accidentally knocking over a pile of tires that fell and tore a hole through the plaster wall, but Lifty had always been a good driver. Despite what everyone would probably think, it didn't make him jealous. It just made him worried….

Lifty's looked over at him worriedly. "You okay, Shifty?"

"Huh?"

"You kept moving around in your sleep", he said. "A lot. I didn't know if I should have woken you up or not…"

"I'm fine", Shifty said quickly. "Just a few bad dreams".

"About what?'

"Home mostly. I can't even describe it. I was scared…"

"Maybe we'll go back someday", Lifty said thoughtfully. "Maybe things will turn out for the better".

Shifty didn't know how to respond. He'd just been back home in his nightmare, and as far as he was concerned, he never wanted to go back. There wasn't any nostalgia to it; there were just bad memories that he would rather not have to deal with. _Some childhood, huh?_ Gazing away from his brother, he stretched his neck and looked down at the back of the van. Almost everyone was asleep, slumped over against their armrests or cushioned against the windows. He half-wondered if anyone else was having the kind of dreams he'd had, but thinking that it was a stupid thing to wonder about in the first place, he didn't consider it much. His eyes took a quick survey of the faces in the van – only one other person was awake.

"Rise and shine", Petunia said.

She was sitting up in the front with a map sprawled out on her lap. Although her fur was speckled in dirt and she'd seemed to have aged ten years in the last two days, she was still struggling to smile. Shifty didn't even consider trying to return it. Even the corners of his mouth were aching.

"So", she said. "Have a good sleep?"

"It was fine", he lied. "How have you been?'

"Good", Petunia replied. "Or at least as good as you could get, you know? We've been talking".

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I think we're going to making a pit-stop down the road. We have a good distance on the road now, and I think we should make some use out of the league we have instead of just running for it. I snagged this map back at the medical clinic - it was tied up with a rubber band in one of the drawers. Anyway, I looked it over and I really hate to say it, but I don't think there's anything else in these woods besides a few redneck cabins here and there. There's really nothing for miles".

She traced her finger along the map and Shifty squinted his eyes to look over at it. There was a thick brown line spiraling down the middle, and it took him a second to discern that it was supposed to represent the road. Petunia's finger zigzagged down the line, crossing over between green blotches that were supposed to be the forest. After what seemed like a very long time, her finger finally stopped abruptly on the line in the middle of the page. It took Shifty a moment to realize that there was a thick dot there.

"This", she said. "Is our pit-stop".

"What's is it?"

"The Montijo Research Center", Petunia explained. "Or at least that's what it's labeled as. I have no clue what it is, but from what I can tell, it's probably a good idea to stop there. For all we know, there might be people in there. And if there's people in there – and this part's really far-fetched so don't go and say anything – maybe they have an idea of what's going on. It's a research center, after all. It's a chance we might as well take".

"Great idea", Shifty said coldly. "Because we all remember the fun we had the last time we stopped".

"Shifty, think of like this!" Petunia pleaded. "The next town we're going to pass is Harland's Falls, and we're probably not going to get there until sometime later tomorrow. We have to stop. And what you said is only half the point. There might be people in there, and if there are, I think they have the right to know that a rain cloud from hell is going to come and obliterate them in a few hours. We have to get the warning out".

"Did you guys vote on this when I was asleep?"

"Sort of", Petunia said with a shrug. "I told we would wait until you woke up until we made the decision final. But everyone is pretty much half-and-half right now. I feel a little edgy about it right now too, but I think it's a pretty decent idea. I mean, if you can come up with another ide-

"I can't", Shifty spat. "But if you're willing to take the chance, I guess my opinion really doesn't matter, does it?"

"Well, that's a great attitude to have", Petunia said dryly. She hadn't lost her cool yet, and this was something that frightened him. People usually started yelling at him by now; it was what he was used to. "But it's good to know that you're willing to go for this. Montijo is only a few hours away".

"One more thing then", Shifty cut in.

"What?"

"What it something bad happens again?" Shifty said. It was a question he'd been wondering awhile but hadn't found the courage to put into words. "Can you honestly say that we're all going to survive this mess? What about later on down the road? What about Flaky's wrist that's still broken? Can you really still be hopeful in all of this?"

The question hung in the air. She looked at him with glassy eyes, her face looking both in deep thought and insulted. The car rocked up and down, continuing the rhythm that it had maintained since their trip began. In the back, somebody started snoring loudly. Shifty looked at her for a long time, waiting for an answer that would leave him satisfied. He ended up getting something entirely different.

"Yeah", Petunia said truthfully. She didn't even flinch. "I think I can".

And then she went right back to tracing her finger across her map.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the long-ass wait for this chapter. I've been all around the country this summer and I really haven't had any time to update as frequently as I've wanted. I can safely say that the next chapter will be up very soon though. I realize the past few chapters haven't been as action-packed as others, but I'm only slowing things down because things are going to seriously pick up soon.**


	14. Pressure Cooker

**Pressure Cooker**

* * *

The Mole felt like he was running through a funhouse. It was customary enough too. For the last two days, his entire life had been running. There'd been moments where he'd thought he'd make it, moments where he'd he thought he was going to die, but then there were the indifferent moments – the moments where he would just stare out at the road with no real direction in mind other than to keep walking like one of those wind-up-toys.

His stomach growled again and he resisted the urge to throw up. He'd already vomited five times since the morning and it wasn't something he wanted to go through again. He'd done the routine so many times now that he almost had it rehearsed. There was a gasp of hot breathe, almost acidic, and then the rising feeling of bile in your throat. Then your puke was on the ground. It hurt, it burned and with things already very bad, he didn't want to go through it again.

Sun was beginning to set throughout the forest now. He couldn't see it, but if anything, he could tell that light was fading. The crickets were starting to come out now, shrieking their clicking sounds in some kind of motorboat grinding. They couldn't hide the sound of the storm though. There was stillness in the air; the humid kind that was wet and moist with wind nipping at his cheeks every now and then.

He walked forward and felt a horrible aching in his foot. _Blisters. Shouldn't have run, really shouldn't have…._

Clearing his throat and getting an acidy aftertaste from the vomit, he stabbed his cane into the dirt road like a spade and felt the path. There were indents in it – and if there indents, that meant there were tracks. He'd bent down and felt them about a mile back, and although he'd always been pretty bad at taking stabs in the dark, he was pretty sure they were made by a car. His fingers had scraped against the pavement like thin charcoal, feeling the texture and studying the marks. It was a heavy car – probably either a truck or one of those big-tanker vans – but that was really beside the point; if there was a car, there had to be people driving it. _Other people. Other people. Gotta be close…._

He spit down into the earth and kept walking, his cane supporting his left side like a walking stick. He was aching all over. Whatever had attacked him pretty bad. Not just bad but the attack had spooked him into a strange mentality that was much more of a burden to carry around then his injuries. He'd tried to go to sleep around dawn, rolled over in the undergrowth on the road's curb near the forest, but he just couldn't. There were too many bad dreams – too many ideas that he didn't want to deal with and probably never would. So with his body hurting, he'd forced himself to get up and keep his nighttime stroll going on into morning. _And so on…_

And with that failed venture at sleep aside, he guessed that he'd been walking for what seemed like three days straight. No sleep. No pit-stops. Three days straight.

"_Here's a guy",_ The Mole thought. _"Here's a blind guy walking down a dirt road after an apocalypse. Here's a guy who doesn't know when to call it quits even when the truth's staring him in the face…."_

He tapped his cane against the road, tried to get the general feel of it and kept walking. The van was close. The tracks were definitely newly paved. If you felt the texture, they weren't the rough and hazed-over like footprints that had long since deteriorated into the dirt. The tracks were fresh ones – and if he was fresh, then they were getting close. It was a chain-reaction. Tracks led to cars, cars led to people and people led to civilization. Or at least the closest thing he could find to a civilization. _How close though? How much longer?_

His inner monologue was disrupted when his stomach decided to call it quits again. His throat warm and wet, he hunched over in the trail and vomited out wet, white paste into the dirt. His cough was ragged – the kind that were always on TV of those quarantined, contagious people on the medical channel that they locked up in white rooms. He'd never really been able to see them, but he'd heard them, and if there was anything in the world more unpredictable than a cough, he had yet to see it. _Common cold. Infection. Could be anything. Be prepared._

He kept walking down the trail, the sounds of the forest chirping and rustling all around him. The thoughts in his mind rambled. He thought of a lot of stuff. Commercials he'd heard on the radio. The cherry pie that you could get at the fair back at Happy Tree. Seeing eye dogs that he'd owned in the past but gotten rid of when he felt embarrassed at the idea of being lugged around by a domesticated pet. He wasn't blind, after all. He just couldn't see. There was difference, although most people didn't really care enough to see it.

He'd sort of raised himself, more or less. The Mole hadn't directly talked to either of his parents in years and it was a record worth keeping. The last time he'd ever heard from his mother was in one of those tacky postcards you could buy at pharmacy counters. There was a difference in this one though – she'd used a Braille printer to make the words readable to him. Then again, even with the charity of doing that, the message of the letter had been pretty bleak. She hadn't said hello. She had wanted him to send money. Even with the bad blood they'd had in the past, he'd tossed a hundred bucks into an envelope and sent it back. Her postcard was still taped to his fridge back at home. You could walk out on a lot of things, but you couldn't walk out on your family. _Still, try telling her that. She gives you up because you're blind and you repay her twenty years later with an envelope full of cash…._

The Mole didn't like charity. He was independent and he had been practically since birth. Being blind wasn't really a handicap. He was missing something, sure, but considering how he'd never really seen to begin with, it was no real loss. You learned to adapt. _And out here too. You learn to adapt out here…._

He'd tried, sure. He'd walked for three days straight, he'd fought when he had to and he'd conserved his energy. Still, things weren't adding up. If whatever had happened was really as bad as it seemed, then most of the people were probably dead. He hadn't heard or felt the presence of anyone else on the road and that definitely wasn't good news. He was falling apart in every sense of the word. He was satisfied with dying. It was just the start of something new. Rotting on the side of the road didn't frighten him. What did frighten him though, was the idea of sitting down on the side of the road and just calling it quits. It would prove everything he'd believed wrong. It would prove he was helpless. It would prove he was a loser. But most of all, it would prove that he was blind.

Survival always found a way to mellow itself down to a tunnel vision. After awhile, there really wasn't anything left to do but keep walking. _And walking and walking and walki-_

That was when he heard something. It was muffled, it was hard to make out and he ended up perking his ears. He thought he was wrong at first, maybe hallucinating from being out on the road for so long, but he wasn't. There was sound coming from further up the road. People were talking. There was the crackling sound of fire. With the world devoid of life, it only emphasized the situation that they were the only thing he could hear beside the life of the forest. _The tire track people! It's them! It's them! You got em! You got em! You're never going down! You're never going down!_

Feeling like a fist was pounding on the inside of his belly, The Mole somehow found the strength to start running.

* * *

_Research center my ass…._

Cuddles tore his hand into the bag of chips and pulled out a greasy handful. His stomach tried to reject it, demanding real food that it just wasn't going to get, but he forced the snack down and tried to shake off his oncoming migraine. He sat on the tree branch above the trail, wiping his sweaty face with his palms and heaving his rifle up into a good vantage point. There were a couple of infected corpses laid out all over the trail with their heads a mess of blood and buzzing flies, and he knew that there'd be more soon enough.

Sun was beginning to set over the forest now. Yellow and red lights lit up the forest's baldachin like a darkroom. All around him, the sounds of bugs began to come out in a low-static buzzing. There were a soft sloshing sound, and by the feel of it, he was probably close to a river - there was the swarm of gnats flying around the tree that only cemented the fact. _Where there's bugs there's water, that's right…_

He was exhausted. No not even exhausted – the way things were going, Cuddles were surprised that he wasn't at the verge of death. The day had started off okay. He'd tried to keep the group spirit up, or at least give it a good kick every time it got to low, but it really hadn't work. Nobody really seemed to like his attitude – if he wasn't talking to much about they were all going to be okay, then he was apparently trying to avoid the truth. It was stupid, but for the time being, he didn't want to think too much into it….

The research center had proven to be further away then they'd thought. There'd been a smile on Petunia's face when she said, "three hours tops", but it had turned out to be a big lie. Sun had fallen and they'd been forced to set up camp a little further down the road. There was such a lack of sound in the world around them now that he could hear them all the way from the campsite. Giggles had enthusiastically offered to cook again, but considering how everyone remembered the steaks from the night before, no one had protested Flaky's offer to put on the chef's hat for the night. She was grilling something over the fire now back at the campsite. _Smells like stew. Beef maybe. Probably got it out of the trunk with all of that processed stuff Flippy packed. Stomach hurts. Hungry. You gotta wait though. Can't leave yet…._

And he couldn't. After all, his philosophy in life was simple: if something got in the way of you having a good time, it had to be fought. Life wasn't about being on desolation row with a sniper rifle in your hand. Not at all. It seemed ironic giving the corpses sprawled out on the forest ground, but the honest truth was that Cuddles was a pacifist. Make love and not war, all of that jazz. He didn't want to kill and he felt terrible every time he did it, but it was just something that had to be done. The things that kept coming through the forest were trying to disrupt his philosophy. They were trying to break the very foundation that he put his life on. Hell, they were trying to disrupt his adventure. Just one look at those red, waterlogged eyes eyes was enough to send shivers down his spine. Shooting them down was his own private way of hiding the truth of what was really happening. If they were dead, then in his mind, he didn't have to think about them anymore. And then there's the fact that you're holding ground. _Gotta keep everyone safe, yes-sir-ee…_

They needed to be kept safe. After all, none of that had any clue what they were doing. Shifty was too arrogant to realize that everyone was just as scared as him, Lifty lived under his brother's shadow and was too scared to run away from it, Petunia was too much of a hardass, Giggles too much of a girly girl, Flaky was kind of a wimp and Nutty, well, he was _Nutty_. Nobody really had the group mentality thing and everyone knew it. That was probably why they were so scared. Nobody wanted to die, but the facts couldn't be clearer. Their group was falling apart and it would only be a matter of time before things really started to fall to pieces _That doesn't mean you got to think about it though. Keep your sunny side up. Tommorow's a better day. Just keep trucking…_

Cuddles sighed and ate another handful of chips. He'd go back in a few minutes. Maybe have some stew and kick back in one of those lawn chairs that he'd found stored in the trunk of the van. Then, with the world of death and disarray far away from them, he'd watch the stars come out with Giggles by the fire. _Gotta protect her. She'll do something stupid if you don't protect her. Hell, maybe they'll all do something stupid if you don't look out for th-_

There was a flutter of movement on the forest ground. A shadow was running. Snapping to life immeadidly, Cuddles grabbed the heavy rifle and pulled it into a firing position like a first instinct. His eyes looked around wildly, and without a second thought, he aimed the rifle down toward the trail in a quick arc and pulled the trigger.

_KER-THUNK!_

The shot was so loud and jolting that he nearly fell out of the tree. He looked around quickly, paranoid beyond belief, but life in the forest was going on. The crickets were still chirping and the sun was still setting. Nothing had changed. Shivering, he gazed over his shoulder and waited a second. He looked down to the ground and saw that he'd just added another body to the pile. It looked like a squirrel or something and it was eagle-sprawled on the ground. He was wearing a long, dark purple turtleneck and his sunglasses were skewed on his windswept face. The kind of walking cane that blind people used was lying off near his right hand. Although he'd missed the head, a decent portion of the neck had been blown off by the shot and loose, red veins were seeping out like a trash bin behind a slaughterhouse. The guy's head was cocked to the side; his face nudging against the dirt trail like it was a pillow.

Cuddles watched as its fingers twitched up and down just like the others before it. He watched for a whole minute until they finally stopped.

He wanted to feel safe. He wanted to feel relieved. But something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. There was something off about those eyes. They didn't have the paned, watery look to them that all the other orange, infected eyes had. In fact, when Cuddles got a good look, he realized the eyes weren't orange at all. They were perfectly normal. Staring up at the sky and frozen in place unable to see much of anything, but perfectly normal for the most part. _And that means…._

"NO!" Cuddles screamed. "SON OF A BITCH!

He hopped down from the tree branch with his rifle and hit the trail on his knees. Scurrying up from the ground, he ran over to the body and knelt down beside it. There was no way – there was absolutely no way he'd shot a normal person. He'd been so careful. He'd kept his cool so well. How did that add up? What logic was there behind any of that? Swearing under his breath with his heart pounding in his chest, Cuddles looked at the boy and got a good view of the face, confirming two things in one clawing stroke. For one, the guy wasn't a squirrel – he was a mole. Second of all, he wasn't infected. This guy was normal, a refugee on the run just like the rest of them, and he'd blown his throat out like a damn water balloon. _No! It was an accident! There's no way! I mean…I mean…awwww c'mon man…why did you have to come sneaking up on me like that? I didn't mean for this to happen! It's not my fault! I'm guilt for enough stuff already! I don't need this on my shoulders! C'mon, just get up! Please!_

Cautiously with his whole body shaking, Cuddles gently rolled the body over and looked the guy up and down for any sort of identification. He searched the side pockets on the turtleneck's pocket and ended up retrieving a leather wallet. There was only a few dimes and nickels buried at the bottom of it. No license. No ID. _Nothing. Nada. Zilch._ This was just a nameless face that he'd sent right up the stairway to heaven. No opinion was needed. Just one click of the trigger and he was gone.

He started sniffling and only had the dim realization that he was crying. Life wasn't supposed to be like this. Life was about going out and having a good time. It was about getting up on Saturday mornings and riding your bike around your cul-de-sac when you were little. It was about wandering around with your friends during those summer days and hanging out on those chain-linked swings by the playground. While your childhood lasted, life was about being a kid for as long as you could. It was supposed to fun. This was nothing of the sort.

And it was his fault too. It was completely his fault and nobody else's. That was the worst part. That was what made it hurt the most. Some people could own up to things, but if you could find one flaw ambivalent in Cuddles, it was his inability to take responsibility for his actions. He didn't need this to be his problem. _So why did it happen?_

"I didn't mean it…" Cuddles muttered quietly. His voice was uncertain at first and then he said it again, this time almost like a fact. "I didn't mean it".

And he hadn't. He couldn't kick his ass feeling sorry for himself. It was his fault, sure, but it was an accident; tragic and unnecessary but overlookable from the grand scheme of things. It wasn't excusable, that was for sure, but he could overlook it. He could overlook it the same way he'd overlooked the bodies that he'd been shooting down throughout the last few days. They were bad thoughts, and if he wanted the sun to be brighter tomorrow, it was best to shake them away. _That's what Mom always said at least. You have to forget about it. You can't feel guilty. It's not your fault. It's really no-_

The dead guy's eyes suddenly rolled over in his head and looked at him. Cuddles screamed and nearly jumped out of his skin. The guy gurgled in the dirt, spitting up blood and lung tissue onto the road in his last breathe. His eyes were squinted and off-center, almost like he couldn't see anymore.

The mole that suddenly didn't seem so dead looked over at him with pleading, cold eyes and choked out:

"Pleeezzzz…hellmeee…"

He was still alive. His throat looked like a mess of bloody piano wire, but he was still alive. Gurgling but barely moving on the ground, the guy eerily reminded Cuddles of the road kill that the highway patrol always picked up. He was buzzard food; if he left him alone, there was a pretty good chance that the birds would start pecking at him. Then the bugs would come, and after that, it was all downhill. _He'll rot. He's really going to rot! Do something! Do something!_

Cuddles's mind went wild, making up excuses and dreaming up ideas. He could leave the guy there, but that would only put even more weight on his shoulder. He could carry him back to camp and let him die on the way, but with the uneasy tension that was already in the air at the campsite, that was almost a guaranteed death sentence. He was paranoid now, probably even insane, but he didn't care. This was a mistake and he felt pretty inclined to clean it up.

But then there was another option. He'd never really paid attention in school, usually being the kid who looked at the clock ticking more than what was on the board, but there was one thing that he remembered. It was a word they'd done for vocabulary in English. It was long, complicated and he'd hardly been able to pronounce it when the teacher called on him. It was the meaning of it, however, that had fascinated him since he'd first heard it. Euthanasia. _Definition; __the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, esp. a painful, disease or condition. God, god, god…._

The rifle in his hands suddenly felt very heavy. He tightened his grip on it and made a choice that would haunt him for the rest of his life. The choice was like the flip of a coin. Fifty-fifty chance. Yes or no. And since he was at such close range, there was no way he could miss. It would be an easy shot; a bulls eye. _Do it. Just end it. Get rid of the guilt…_

"Pleeeeeeez", The Mole croaked again. _"Helmee…._

Cuddles turned his head away, closed his eyes and fired another shot from the rifle. The gunshot cracked and he felt his ankles being speckled with blood and brains like the feeling of running barefoot through wet grass. He felt a wave of revulsion at the thought and shook it away. On plain recoil from the shot, his whole body seemed to shake and he was knocked off his feet. He turned his head back slowly, staring over at the body with a look of allurement and horror.

Gunsmoke was everywhere. The smell of powder wafted up his nose and Cuddles didn't see an accident in front of him. It wasn't a careless mistake anymore – not an inadvertent rifle shot. It was a corpse. And like it or not, it was a corpse that he had created.

The Mole now had the head of a broken china doll. His skull was clearly exposed on the left side of his face, teeth shining out like an intense radiograph you would get at a doctor's visit. Blood was bubbling out near his left ear, forming a river and trickling around his head in a bold outline. A bright knob of horribly white bone was protruding out near his ear. Filled with cold and panicked fascination, Cuddles could only find one thing to be grateful for: he couldn't see the eyes - they were hidden behind the dead guy's dark sunglasses.

And it wasn't an accident anymore either. It didn't just _happen_. So many things in Cuddles's life had been accidents, and this wasn't one of them. This, quite frankly, was a murder – and in cold blood at that. A few days ago his mind would be full of worries, but with law and society now belonging to the past and the sky belonging to the birds again, the idea of being caught and trialed for murder was almost laughable. _But there's the guilt. Don't forget the guilt, man. You did a good deed, but there's still guilt….._

That couldn't stop him from feeling the pressure of it though. He may not have meant to do it, but heck, how many of those monsters had he killed out there? Easily a good dozen or so. What was saying this guy here was any different? What if everyone was a monster? Feeling his headache worsen, Cuddles thoughts rambled even more for a second, nearly to the point where the craziest idea yet entered his head. He'd shot the guy at close-range. What was saying he couldn't shoot himself?

"_But that's crazy",_ he thought. _"It was a mistake! It had to be! You can get rid of it! Just hide the body somewhere! You can make it so no one has to see it! You can toss it! You can bury it away. You…"_

His thoughts ended right there when a single cryptic phrase became cemented in his mind. _Bury it…_

It would get rid of the guilt right away. It would put his accident right under the earth where nobody had to see it. Swallowing hard and looking around, feeling more paranoid than ever, Cuddles took a quick gaze through the forest trees. Nobody was watching him. He perked his long ear and listened down the pinewood trail into the silent, apocalyptic world. He could hear the others talking faintly at the campsite. None of them had any idea what had just happened.

He looked at the rifle in his hand again. It was pretty dull for digging, but if he put the safety on and it spun it around, the blunt end of it would make an mediocre shovel. It definitely wasn't suitable for a burial, but with the way things were going, he was starting to doubt if anyone was going to get a proper burial ever again. Squeezing his fingers against the weapon's sleek, metal coating, he stared over at the dead mole. Then he clicked the rifle on safety.

"Pick a hole", Cuddles muttered under his breath. He stood there for a good while, and by the time he dug the end of the rifle into the ground, he was crying again.

* * *

The grave wasn't that hard to dig. A shovel wouldn't have been anything short of miraculous, but Cuddles didn't have one - all he had was a rusted-over rifle and he intended to do his best with it. It only seemed right anyway. The rifle was what had made the accident happen and it only seemed like the right tool to be burying it with. He plunged the spade into the earth over and over, hitting both hard and soft rock as he pushed the rifle as far down as it could go. He was both denting the rifle and bruising his hands during the process, but he didn't care. _Someone messed up. Easily redeemable though. Easily redeemable…_

He daydreamed a lot while he was digging. He thought about sleepovers he'd had when he was little, he'd thought about their morning confrontation with the raccoon brothers at Happy Burger only a few days ago, he thought about Giggles, but most of all, he thought about being dead and underground. The worms would get to you, the dirt would cave in, and after awhile, you'd rot away and be gone forever; and that wasn't going to happen to him. Cuddles controlled his own life and nobody could step in to stay otherwise.

After what was probably half an hour but seemed like a good few days, he finally finished the hole. It was a shallow grave and the body would probably rise when the rain came, but it was enough to take his mind off his worries. Humming while he worked and dusting off his eyes, he climbed out of the grave and knelt down beside the body. It was tough – especially considering how he wasn't very muscular and was exhausted – but he managed to roll the body over into the ditch. It fell with a soft thud and he shuddered, wondering when the maggots and worms would get to him. Too frightened to even look in and see those hollow eyes staring up at him, he stared kicking in all of the dirt that he'd piled out with the end of the rifle. Lathered in sweat and knowing he probably smelled awful from the lack of showering in the last few days, he finally filled in the last patch of dirt over the hole. Then he stepped back to admire his handiwork. He rubbed his feet against the earth over it, smoothening out the grave and only leaving it as a slight imprint on the trail where the hole had once been. He tried to smooth it out a little more, but considering he'd dug frantically and quickly, he didn't do a very good job. The body was hidden though and that was all that mattered.

Cuddles stood in front of the grave; the grave that _he'd_ created. Staring down at the ground more than the resting place itself, he started to speak.

"I'm sorry I killed you", he said quietly. "I….I didn't mean it. I'm edgy, you know? Being on the road for three days straight does stuff to you. My mind's sort of messed up right now. I miss home. I don't want to keep going on like this. This shouldn't have happened. I mean, I had a future. You had a future. It may not have turned out that great, but it was a future, and you just got that snatched away from you. We all deserve to live. I mean, c'mon, this isn't how life's supposed to work out. A few days ago I was planning a beach trip with my friends and now I'm here giving a mourning speech for a guy I don't even know. Funny how things work out, huh?"

For a second he thought he' d heard a voice answering back from the grave – probably a deep and guttural one like in those movies he'd always watched when people came back from the dead - but it didn't happen. He heard nothing. The grave was simply a lump in the earth that was going to be overlooked by the next person that came along to see it. It was like how the bugs gathered around the stream or the insects made their sounds in the woods. It was a cycle – and it was just going to go on forever. _Just like you…._

"Not all people are bad", Cuddles said. He'd wiped away the last of his tears. "At least I'm not".

* * *

He stood there for about fifteen minutes. Flies started to buzz over the lump of dirt. Crickets chirped. The sun kept setting and nightfall approached. Taking in a breath of fresh pine air, Cuddles slung the rifle over his shoulder and started walking down the trail, feeling welcomed by the oily stench of stew coming from the campsite and the idea of his girlfriend waiting for him. By the time he was halfway there, he was whistling.

Even in the weeks to come, nobody would ever find out about the grave..

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry for the lack of progress with this story in the recent months. I want everyone to know that this is in no way abandoned. In fact, it's one of my top priorities right now. I'm just been insanely busy with school starting and it's been hard to find time to write. **

**And seriously, thanks for all the great feedback everyone! It really motivates me to keep going with the story knowing that people read and enjoy what I write!**

**And be prepared to get a clear idea of where the rain came from in the next chapter. :D**


	15. Author's Note

_Hey to anyone interested,_

I've recently gotten a few emails and messages asking about the status of this story, seeing how it's been a little over a year since it's been updated. After coming back to reread it and consider things, I really have to apologize for leaving everyone who followed this story hanging. I sort of just lost interest in the project and was too overwhelmed with work and school to think about it...

But then, on a whim, I checked back on it a few days ago. Imagine how shocked I was at the fact that people are not only still following the story but actually liking it to the point where my jaw dropped at the sight of finding fan art and repostings for it on the internet. I really want to thank you guys for all your kind words and the praise you've given this story. It really makes me feel fufilled knowing people like what I write, seeing how most of my ideas are more for self-fufillment or fun than anything else.

Now, for the big question: is the story abandoned?

No, it's _not_ – at least not anymore.

I have decided to _continue_ it and you'll find the next chapter up momentarily now. Once I read it over again, I really ended up disliking the idea of quitting it and never giving the ending, which seems like a waste considering all the cool stuff I had planned. With a lot more time for writing on my plate now, I've decided to tackle this story again and finish it – _for real,_ this time. Looking back at it, I realized how awful it would be for me to never get to write the stuff I had planned for Shifty, Petunia, Lifty, and the others. I'm continuing the story now with a new chapter due momentarily and I hope anyone interested enjoys.

_On the road again,_

TheWaxFactory


End file.
